County Women Elevated To Premier

As part of the Football Association’s Upward Club Movement, Notts County Women have found themselves elevated in the East Midlands Women’s Regional Football League Premier Division.

For the second successive season league football came to an abrupt conclusion due to the ongoing pandemic, this time around seeing the FA inviting clubs, those playing at Tiers 3 to 6, to apply for upward movement in the women’s football pyramid.

Determined by the Women’s Football Board, applications were opened in April, as the current ‘season’ was being kick-started into life with a re-start for round-robin cup competitions.

County Women’s Manager Adam Dunleavy, and Captain Holly Fowler (pictured), took to social media immediately after the FA had made the new public, Adam saying; “Absolutely over the moon!

“The tireless work of the last three years from everyone associated with the club has paid off.

“Time to consolidate in the league above and kick on; the hard work starts now.”

Holly meanwhile added: “Cloud 9 honestly; three years of hard work and dedication has paid off.

“Finished 2nd first season, followed by two seasons cancelled due to covid, but we finally got the promotion we wanted so badly.

“Now to push on, work hard pre-season, and prove we deserve to be in this league.”

Applications were marked against a criteria which is weighted 75% on-field and 25% off-field from which the on-field criteria considered aspects such as points per game, cup performances and goal difference, across the last two seasons.

The off-field section was seen to mark clubs on areas such as club structure, workforce and facilities.

Clubs applying to move into the FA Women’s Championship, also had to demonstrate that they would be able to meet the required licence criteria.

Any applications from Tier 7 to Tier 6 will be formulated and released in due course, as for Dunleavy’s Lady Pies, the following now applies.

Having played in Division 1 South, County’s Development sides play in the North, the first team will, next season, find themselves coming up against Lincoln United Women (League Cup winners, elevated from Division 1 North), local Nottinghamshire clubs Mansfield Town Ladies, Ollerton Town Ladies, and Rise Park Ladies.

Alongside those, there’ll also be trips to that of Kettering Town Women, Leicester City Ladies, Loughborough Students Women, Northampton Town Women, Oughtibridge War Memorial Women (League Cup winners), Peterborough United Women, Rotherham United Women, and Woodlands Ladies.

An interview with both Dunleavy and Fowler will be available via Notts County Talk twitter.com/NottsCountyTalk discussing promotion, whilst you can keep up-to-date with all the goings on with County Women via twitter.com/NCFC_Women.