Following two ‘so near yet so far’ seasons, Wolves Women are determined to make 2023/24 the club’s most successful campaign of the 21st century.
After winning the Women’s National League’s Northern Premier Division in 2021/22 but then missing out on promotion through a play-off defeat to Southampton, Wolves were pipped to the Northern Premier title on goal difference by Nottingham Forest last term.
Winning the Birmingham County Cup in both seasons was consolation but could not erase the heartache and frustration of Dan McNamara’s team.
Just as in recent years, there have been highs and lows for the women’s club since its formation in 1975 as Heathfield Rovers. Initially a West Midlands League second division club, they later became Wolverhampton & Wednesbury Tube and then Wolverhampton Ladies before taking the name Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1993.
That final name switch was a good omen as the1993/94 season saw them promoted to the Premier League – which was then the top flight of the English women’s game – where they spent two seasons before relegation.
In 1999 the club was incorporated under the Companies Act with several influential business people joining the board, among them BBC presenter Jenny Wilkes (chair) and former England Women’s cricket team captain Baroness Rachael Heyhoe Flint.
The club evolved a strong youth development programme, several players going on to become senior internationals – Rachel Unitt, Jody Handley and Emily Westwood for England, Kerrie Manley for Wales and Amy McCann for Northern Ireland.
Aston Villa’s European Cup-winning captain Dennis Mortimer was appointed manager in 2000 and led the team for three years, narrowly missing out on promotion.
In a landmark move in the 2008/09 season the women’s section was taken on board by Wolverhampton Wanderers FC as part of Wolves Community Trust.
Recent seasons have seen the club promoted three times and relegated twice, managers James Astle, Tim Dudding and McNamara leading successful campaigns.
At junior level the club was awarded a new FA Girls’ Regional Talent Club licence in 2016, supporting the identification and development of players with elite potential as part of the England Talent Pathway. Encouragingly, the RTC has seen some talented young players moving through the ranks and making their mark at senior level.
Current first-team manager McNamara took over at the beginning of 2018 after a poor start to the season and led the battle to avoid the drop, but after a hard-fought campaign relegation was confirmed – agonisingly on goal difference.
There was further disappointment in the following two seasons, firstly as McNamara’s team finished runners-up and so missed out on promotion and then, in 2019/20, having promotion snatched away as they had all but clinched top place when the season was null and voided due to the coronavirus pandemic.
2020/21 looked like déjà vu as, once again, Wolves were riding high only to have another pandemic-enforced end to the campaign. But a deserved promotion was eventually achieved via the FA’s ‘upward movement’ initiative, so ending the team’s three-year break from the Northern Premier Division.
And what a 2021/22 season it was. The divisional title was clinched with three matches remaining and the County Cup was lifted with a 4-1 victory in the final over local rivals West Bromwich Albion. Then came the devastating promotion play-off defeat; and 12 months later the heartbreak of missing out again on clinching the title.
Now, as McNamara, his players and staff look to produce a 2023/24 campaign to top their achievements of the last two seasons, they continue to play their home games at AFC Telford United’s impressive New Bucks Head Stadium which has a crowd capacity of 5,500.
The women’s and girls’ set up is fully integrated into Wolves Academy, under the leadership of head of women’s and girls’ football, Jenna Burke-Martin, and a new FA Emerging Talent Centre forms the base of the female player pathway.
Players benefit from the use of the club’s top class Compton training ground facilities – including sports science, analysis and physiotherapy – as part of Wolves’ ‘one pack’ ethos.
