Derby County L.F.C.

The Birth of Derby County Ladies FC

The club that was to become Derby County LFC started out as the idea of Sheila Rollinson and Jess Reid, who at the time were both playing for the Coventry-based ladies side Holbrooks Athletic. Sheila had recently moved to the Derby area and Jess lived in Burton, so they came up with the idea of forming a new more locally based team.

Adverts for players were placed in both the Burton Mail and the Derby Evening Telegraph and at that time more of the replies came from the Burton area, so Burton Wanderers was born. The club's first season was 1978/9 in the Midland League (which later became the West Midlands League) and saw the club playing at Shobnall Fields in Burton, with Phil Rollinson as manager and Bob Reid acting as club secretary. Training sessions were held in Bitham School sports hall.

After one season in the Midland league the club decided to move to the Nottingham League (later the East Midlands League) due to the standard of football being of a higher level. At this time a national women's league was not in place and as such the club regularly played against teams such as Doncaster Belles, which at the time contained most of the England team. Junior leagues were not in place and with girls not being allowed to play in boys’ teams, the side often had 11- 13 year olds playing alongside adults.

With the demise of another local side, Derby Rangers, a number of experienced players joined the club and in 1985 the club secured its first sponsorship deal with the Beacon Hotel The deal saw the clubs name change to Beacon Wanderers. During this period Dave Elks enjoyed a lengthy spell as the clubs manager before handing over to Malcolm Aldridge. Gradually the balance of players swung more towards the Derby area and as the club name no longer included Burton, it seemed sensible to move both matches and training sessions to Derby. For a while Leesbrook school was the venue for both before eventually Derby City Councils Parkers Piece ground became the clubs home.

In 1990 John Jarman started the Community Department at Derby County Football Club and in the same year he held discussion with the management of Beacon Wanderers which eventually lead to the formation of Derby County Ladies FC. At that time the club consisted of a single open-age team, however the association with Derby County quickly saw it extended to a reserve and third team. The first manager of the newly formed DCLFC was Neil Crofts

Early Years

Training for DCLFC was moved from Leesbrook to the now defunct DCFC Ramarena training ground, with the club playing an FA cup tie there. In 1993 the FA were instructed by UEFA to take over the running of Women's football and as a result a structure was put into place which eventually saw the setting up of the National League structure. This was done on a selection as opposed to results basis, with the FA identifying which teams it felt were appropriate for leagues within the structure. As part of this the Midland Combination league was formed with Derby County becoming founder members. At this juncture Maggit and Deb Newham became the first female managers of the club. In 1997 Raffaele ( Raf ) Long made contact with the club in order to secure coaching hours to contribute to his UEFA B licence qualification. This marked the start of a long association with the club, which saw Raf become its Chairman, a post that he eventually relinquished in 2013.

2001/02

DCLFC recruited their first "official" junior squads which led to them having U14 and U12 squads competing in Notts Girls League for first time. Both teams enjoyed hugely successful seasons with each achieving the league and cup double. The U14 were jointly managed by Alex Penny & Kristian Speakman who both went on to have careers in the professional game. Steve Hall managed the U12 side which included Precious Hamilton, a player who would go on to represent the club a senior level as well as going on to play WSL football for Notts County.

The same season saw the clubs senior side struggle under the helm of then manager, Richard Astle. A number had left the club to join Sandiacre Town and relegation to the Unison East Midlands League came in the penultimate game of the season when a 90th minute of injury time goal by Stafford Rangers saw both teams relegated.

2002/03

The following season was one of consolidation although the club did reach the leagues cup semi final where they lost to eventual league champions, Nottingham Forest. At junior level the club continued to blossom with a number of successes achieved

2003/04

This season saw DCLFC strengthened at Junior level with the introduction of a further two age specific sides. At senior level, Steve Hall stepped up to become first team manager and under his stewardship the club secured runners up spot behind Leicester City, whilst they lost in the league cup final to the same side.

2004/05

This proved to be the clubs most successful season to that point with their history, with the first team completing a league and cup double in the Unison East Midlands Premier Division, which saw them gain promotion to the Midland Combination League. The Reserves finished a creditable third in the newly formed Reserve division, and in doing so moved up a level to play in the Combination League. At junior level the clubs sides continued to secure silverware on a number of front

2005/06

Derby County Ladies participates as a founder member of the inaugural FA Midland Centre of Excellence programme, with teams competing at U16 and U14 age group. Their participation in the programme reaped immediate reward in the form of England recognition for U16 captain Cara Newton. At senior level the first team enjoyed a season of consolidation, finishing a creditable 4th in their first season in the Midland Combination League. Notable results included a seven-goal mauling of TNS (who were league leaders at the time) in January, and a single goal victory over eventual league champions Crewe in the last game of the season. The Reserves also competed admirably in their first season in the Midland Combination Reserves League.

2006/07 & 2007/08

Both seasons saw the club compete at the top end of the Midland Combination league, whilst the clubs junior sides continued to enjoy successful seasons across the board.

2008/09

The 2008/09 season was seen as a landmark one in the clubs history as the first team not only won the league cup but finally won the Midland Combination league following a 4-2 win over Crewe in final League game of the season. The fixture was played at Derby County FC's Pride Park stadium and the result saw the club gain promotion to the Women's Premier League.. The clubs Reserves won Reserve Cup, whilst their U16s, U12's and U10's all achieved league and cup double success.

2009/10

The Ewe Rams first season proved to be a tough baptism in the WPL. Needing two points from the last two games to ensure they retained their status in the league, Derby travelled to Aston Villa for the penultimate game of the season. With 30 minutes remaining they found themselves 2-0 down before staging a brilliant come-back, with a fantastic Emily Jeffery strike sealing a 3-2 victory and with it safety 2010/11 proved to be Steve Hall's final one as manager, prior to him stepping down and it proved to be a successful one as the club secured a commendable 5th-place finish behind league champions Aston Villa and runners up Coventry City.

2011/12

The next season saw former junior coach, John Bennett return to the club as its first team manager when John Townson's brief tenure in charge was halted when he was given a professional contract closer to his North West home. The season once again proved successful with the club again finishing 5th. Manchester City pipping Sheffield FC to the title

2012/13

The 2012/13 season proved to be poor after the previous two, and saw the club finish one place off the bottom of the league. However, with only one team being relegated and local rivals Leicester City securing only four points all season, the clubs were never in danger of losing their WPL status.During this season the FA announced the launch of the Women's Super league (WSL) and invited applications from clubs playing at Premier League level. Derby submitted an application to join the league, however it proved unsuccessful falling short of the required challenging criteria in a number of areas. Shortly after the outcome was advised, Raf Long ended his 16-year association with the club, as he stepped down as the clubs chairman to take up the Director role at the Leicester City Centre Of Excellence.

2013/14

The club started the 2013/14 season without a chairman, however they were able to welcome FA Regional Coach John Griffiths to the club in a mentoring role initially to the clubs senior coaching staff.

On the back of the failed WSL bid, the clubs committee decided to look towards a more commercially and business focused model and sought to appoint a new figure head to lead the club in addressing the shortcomings that had been identified within the failed bid.

Duncan Gibb an experienced Commercial Manager within the leisure and sport industry took up an offer to join the club as its Chief Executive in September 2013.

Gibb moved quickly to address two identified weaknesses, namely a lack of external investment and a poor profile. He secured club partners (sponsors) for each of the teams 10 sides before turning his attention to the clubs profile and securing a dedicated slot for the club on BBC Radio Derby's Sportscene programme.

On the back of this dedicated weekly club columns in both the Derby Telegraph and Burton Mail were secured on the back of meetings with the respective papers editors. On the pitch Gibb appointed Griffiths to a newly created Director Of Football role that saw him introduce a playing philosophy throughout the club and in essence run the football side of things, while Gibb looked to address the off field shortcomings within the WSL bid.

The season proved to be John Bennett's last as manager and he guided the club to a respectable 7th-place finish after the previous disappointing season. Bennett took the decision due to family commitments and one of his last games at the helm saw the club win the Derbyshire County Cup for a third consecutive year beating Sandiacre Town 6–2 in the final.

As part of its plans to raise the clubs profile, a friendly match was secured against 11 times league champions and former Champions League winners, Arsenal FC. A club record crowd of 600 saw a full strength Arsenal side consisting of England internationals, Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey and Casey Stoney eventually defeat a resilient Rams side 5-0

2014/15

Following receipt of over 30 applications the club returned to a female manager, appointing Jenny Sugarman to the role. Unfortunately after an encouraging start to the season, results deteriorated and with the club firmly entrenched in a relegation battle they parted company with Sugarman shortly prior to Xmas.

Reserve Team Managers, Ash Abbey and Jack White undertook the role in an interim basis steadying the ship, before Stuart Wilson was appointed at the start of February. Wilson had previously won the league with Aston Villa and had recently been interviewed for the England U17's management role. Ironically the role had been secured by John Griffiths who as a result was forced to relinquish his Director Of Football role at Derby County.

Wilson's tenure couldn’t have been any more challenging starting with two marquee friendly fixtures against firstly reigning WSL Champions, Liverpool and a week later against reigning FA Cup holders, Arsenal. The games saw both clubs field full strength sides with gates of over 600 witnessing each. The Liverpool game had been initially postponed due to a frozen pitch with over 1,000 tickets having already been snapped up, however the re-scheduled date fell on the same night that the men's club played. With these marquee friendly fixtures out of the way, Wilsons impact was immediate and the side embarked on an incredible sequence of results that saw them not only avoid relegation, but secure a top half 6th-placed finish

Off the pitch, representatives of the club attended the annual FA Awards in London, where they saw the club secure runners up spot in the FA Club Of The Year awards on the back of the previous year's developments both on and off the pitch. However the best was saved until last when club founder Sheila Rollinson picked up the main award of the night when she was recognised for her ‘ Outstanding Contribution To Women's Football ‘. The award was not just seen as a hugely justified accolade for her part in the amazing journey of Derby County from a local parks side to an established WPL club, but for her contribution to the wider game.

2015/16

On the pitch the club increased its portfolio of teams to 11 with the introduction of an U18's side to act as a conduit between its senior and academy sides.

At first team level the clubs continued where it left off the previous season and topped the table going into December before the clubs form plummeted leading to early exits in both the FA and League Cups and a slump to 7th place in the league.

With targets of a run in at least one of the cups and a top five finish agreed at the start of the season, Manager Stuart Wilson and his Assistant Neil Wilson left the club with three games of the season left, which included the Derbyshire County Cup tie with big spending Long Eaton. Despite only being able to field four first team players, Ewe Rams delivered a superb performance on the day resulting in a 5-1 victory under the guidance of Reserve Team Manager, Petter Asser.

Off the field the club continued to make significant strides in a number of areas. Dave Cholerton was appointed to the newly created Academy Director role that saw him oversee each of the clubs 9 junior sides, whilst the clubs Executive Committee was replaced with a Board Of Directors consisting of a Finance Director, Operations Director, Media Director and Commercial Director.

Reward for the clubs progress was realised firstly at local level as the club won the Derby City Club Of the Year Award, before the club was acclaimed nationally when it walked away from the FA Awards at Wembley Stadium named as the ‘ FA Premier League Club Of the Year ‘.

As part of the clubs ambitions to put into place the foundations of a subsequent WSL bid, the club relocated to Mickleover Sports FC's, Don Amott LG Arena in January 2016.

2016/17

The club continued to make significant strides off the pitch during the close season, whilst matching these on the pitch.

Sam Griffiths a UEFA A License Coach was appointed to the role of Director of Football with a view to re-imbedding the playing and coaching philosophies that her predecessor John Griffiths had begun to implement during his tenure in the role.

In addition to this John Bennett returned for his second spell as Manager and was joined by a number of locally based coaching and support staff, with the club openly stating in the media that it wished to return to the ‘ Derby Way ‘ a moniker applied to the men's arm of the club in the media following the sacking of Paul Clement earlier in the year, but one that had been formally identified and applied to the clubs ladies side back in 2013 by John Griffiths.

As part of her early work, Griffiths introduced an Under 18's Development side to the structure increasing the number of sides within the club to 12, and re-branded the Reserve team the Development side as the club looked to further replicate the men's arm of the club in terms of an operating model.

In terms of personnel the club invested in six new signings with all but one of those coming from the WSL. These included Sheffield FC club legend' Lisa Giampalma, Doncaster Belles' Molly Johnson and ex Manchester City player' Leanne De Silva.

Off the field the club appointed Andy Moore as its Media Director with a remit of introducing the best club website outside of the WSL and improving the clubs social media face. As part of his work Moore quickly moved towards formally establishing links with Derby Universities media studies section. With the addition of players and personnel the club once again delivered both on and off the pitch.

On the pitch pre-season targets of a top five finish and a run in one of the cups were realised, as the club equalled its highest ever league position following a final day victory over local rivals Nottingham Forest. Bennett’s side would however almost certainly have surpassed expectation and secured a top three finish, had it not been for a significant injury crisis to key personnel, that saw Lorna Abbey side-lined for the majority of the season, Sam Griffiths and Emily Jeffrey sustain season ending ACL injuries and Lisa Giampalma side-lined for six weeks with what was at one stage thought to be a career ending eye injury. Towards the end of the season things had in fact got that bad, that Bennett didn’t have a single centre half to call on, having started the season with six of them !

Following a disappointing League Cup exit at the hands of Division 1, Chester Le-Street, Bennetts side progressed to the third round of the FA Cup on the back of victories over Huddersfield Town and Sheffield United. The win over The Blades saw them rewarded with a mouth-watering tie with local rivals Nottingham Forest, which saw the club once again break its record attendance with over 800 supporters creating a fantastic atmosphere. Whilst the crowd was easily the biggest of the competition at that stage and surpassed the men’s clubs crowd for their Checkatrade Cup home tie with Mansfield Town, a solitary goal against the run of play saw the visitors progress to the next round.

The clubs Academy under, Dave Cholerton continued to develop with seven league titles and cup successes secured by the end of the season. Perhaps more pleasing than that was progressing of players from within the clubs Under 18’s side to the First Team, with forward Ellie May and goalkeeper Charlotte Clarke both featuring regularly towards the latter part of the season, with the former also being called up to John Griffiths England U17’s squad.

Off the field the club were once again in the mix at the FA Awards at Wembley, securing runners up in the ‘ FA Premier League Club Of The Year ‘ category, whilst Academy Director, Dave Cholerton came runner up to former England legend, Hope Powell in the ‘ Outstanding Contribution To Women’s Football ’ award. Cholerton’s input into the clubs delivery was probably best captured when 64 schools and over 700 pupils attended the clubs annual schools football festival in March.

The clubs new website was launched at the start of November and was very quickly recognised as the best in the Premier League, fully justifying the appointment of Andy Moore as Media Director. By the end of the season the website had secured over 60,000 hits and was on course to deliver 150,000 within its first year.

‘Partnerships’ were seen as the key priority for CEO, Duncan Gibb when he addressed the clubs annual Xmas function at Pride Park Stadium and by the end of the season key partnerships with both Derby University and Merrill Academy were at an advanced stage of negotiation, whilst talks were also underway to discuss a long term partnership commitment to Mickleover Sports and their Don Amott Arena ground.

2017/18

Going into the 2017/18 season, off the pitch the board set about aims to achieve five key partnerships over the course of two years but efficiently achieved all within one year, ensuring the future of the Ewe Rams was secure off the pitch as they prepared to switch their focus to the playing side.

The first key partnership was secured with Merrill Academy with 1st Team training reverting to their impressive facilities that included a new 4G pitch, gym and physio facilites.

The second key partnership that was secured was with Derby University where the club linked up with the newly formed Football Journalism course to create three scholarships for women football players each year, over the next three seasons to join both the course and the Ewe Rams. A video promo saw the likes of former England International Kelly Smith and leading Sports Journalist and Presenter Jacqui Oatley advertise the course and the first scholar was recruited for the 2018/19 season.

With first team games having moved to Mickleover Sports FC back in Jan 2016, the club secured a third key partnership with the club signing a 3-year extension to the tenancy with both clubs signing a memorandum to explore the Ewe Rams becoming a stakeholder in the ground.

Despite securing Merrill Academy as a partner with their excellent facilities, the opportunity for the clubs senior teams to train at Derby County's Moor Farm Training facility become available and towards the end of the season, the club secured a fourth partnership, which became a prelude to the 5th partnership and moved it's First Team training sessions to the training centre.

The move to Moor Farm for 1st Team training was only the beginning of what become the Ewe Rams fifth and most important partnership when Derby County FC agreed to greater synergy and formed the #OneClub approach offering financial, operational and admin support to the Ladies arm of the team.

During the 2017/18 season, the opportunity to apply for a place in a new look FA Women's Football League structure was opened and Derby County Ladies with the support of Derby County put in a strong application to become a semi-professional FA Women's Championship side. Despite a strong bid the application was turned down with the club remaining in the FA National League structure.

Despite the rejection, the FA named the Ewe Rams as the Club of the Year for the second time in three seasons thus becoming the only two-time winners of the title. That along with being named both the Derby City Council Club of the Year and the Derby Telegraph Sports Club of the Year saw the club finish a successful season off the pitch.

On the pitch, the club finished a mediocre 7th in the FA Women's Premier Northern Division, a poor season by the Ewe Rams standard with the club also dumped out of both Cup competitions by lower league opposition. Manager John Bennett announced towards the end of the season that he would step down from the Manager's position at the end of the campaign, ending his long association with the club.

Having been the club's Director of Football for the past two seasons, Sam Griffiths relinquished that role to become the Club's new Manager for the start of the 2018/19 season. Along with the decision to step into the Manager's hot-seat, Griffiths also retired from playing having not played since the 2016/17 season due to injury, thus concentrating on her new position.

2018/19

Off the pitch, the club secured an extra key partnership as the linked up with the UK's leading Sports College, Loughborough College to create an educational partnership for young women footballers aged 16-19. This partnership will see the club work with the college to provide opportunities for players to develop with the Ewe Rams.

On the pitch, Griffiths recruited 10 players with a number of key signings joining including key signings Jodie Redgrave from Brighouse Town LFC, Steph Smith and Callan Barber from Coventry United LFC and Olivia Mitcham joining from Leicester City WFC. Also returning to the club was former fan favourite Cara Newton after a 3-year spell with local rivals Long Eaton United LFC. Also joining the club were Rachael Ball (From Stoke City LFC), Emily Joyce (Birmingham City WFC), Leah Kellogg (Long Eaton United LFC), Monique Watson (Doncaster Rovers Belles) and Moriah McIntosh (Leicester City WFC)

With the closer synergy between the main club, the Ewe Rams were afforded an opportunity to play local rivals Nottingham Forest Ladies at Pride Park Stadium in early September in front of a new National League record of 2,109 fans, the second highest attendance seen to date across all leagues in the UK. The Ewe Rams secured the win in the fixture when local girl and Derby County fan, Amy Sims, headed the only goal of the game to ensure all three points.

Heading into October, the squad remained unbeaten in all competitions with four wins and two draws in the league and advancing to the 2nd Round of the League Cup with a 3-1 win over Bedworth United LFC.