Thetownend.com

Seeing as the club is pushing this reasonably hard, I thought it might be good to have a thread for the Women's team at least and we'll see how it goes. Easy enough for those who aren't interested to ignore, and I'm not going to pretend I'll do much more than follow the results for now, but anyone wearing an STFC shirt deserves success in my book.

Season starts this Sunday against Abingdon at Foundation Park. Lots of new signings, including players who've dropped down from the divisions above - on paper at least, we're throwing a bit of money at promotion (relative to what 'big spending' means in the context of the women's lower tiers).

Game kicks off 2:45 because of the World Cup final (fair enough).

Potentially a tricky division to get out of, last season Exeter lost out despite only losing twice and drawing once. Hopefully a competitive team this season and see if the crowds come to watch.

Yeah I had to look up the league structure. The top two tiers (WSL, Championship) are national with 12 teams, then there's North/South third tiers of 12 teams and below those third tiers, four fourth tier National Leagues with Swindon in the D1 South West.

Last year's South West D1 was won by Cardiff, with Exeter second exactly even on points having lost only two games and not going up - it's one up, one down with no playoffs. Town came 6th. Interesting mixture of teams in the division with some big names - Southampton, Bournemouth and some local sides like Portishead Town and Keynsham.

I'm sorry to report that Oxford Ladies play in the division above.

Went to two of the three Women’s games at the CG last season.

Honestly, less of a ‘let’s support Women’s football’ and more of a ‘let’s see how a 4 year gets on with going to the CG & sitting relatively still for 90 minutes’

Both games they lost Plymouth cup & Southampton league if I recall. Plymouth were clearly street ahead all over the pitch but looks like half the team is new. The STFC Women’s account keeps appearing on my Twitter feed & I keep looking out for an actual squad list to see who is / isn’t there from last season.

I was tempted to go to a few more but whilst a few of their home games are at Foundation Park a lot last season were in Fairford which whilst not a million miles away adds to fair bit to a lazy Sunday journey.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/teams/women/

I thought the squad list on the women's site would be up to date, but there are definitely signings announced on Twitter missing. A fair few of the names I recognise from last season, not least Viveash's niece (I think) and Annie Colston who seems to be the star striker.

Looks like former TEF sponsee Annie Martin has left though, so good to see that the sponsorship curse works on the women's team too.

Yeah, definitely out of date.
Definitely people there who have left & a few missing who have signed.

4-2 victory over Abingdon to start the season, not just the men's first team dangerous at both ends it seems. Two from Annie Colston, one each from Helena Diaz-Butcher and Taylor MacDonald. Holly Randall appears to have been on for six minutes as a substitute before being sent off again, which is a fair effort.

4-1 win for the women's team yesterday in what I think is sort of the FA Trophy equivalent, hat-trick for Annie Colston so nice symmetry in Young, Kanu (U18s) and Colston all getting three or more as the three sides won 14-2 in total. A good weekend for the whole club!

a hatrick of hatricks. Tidy.

First game of the season at the CG this weekend - AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup on Sunday at 2pm. £4 tickets, £2 concessions with only the Arkells open.

I can't see myself ever going to a game but I like the fact that they are now under the stfc umbrella and will look out results. But do these ticket prices cover the cost of the ground opening and kiosks and stewards etc.

Here's a question for the spotters. Back in the day (I'm talking mid-late 90's) there was always an update in the programme on the Women's team and there was a lady who absolutely banged the goals in for them. 3 or 4 every game it seemed like!

We all used to joke that we should sign her up. Can anyone remember the name...?

Tracy Ludlow, Laidlaw or something like that…

Although it was a long time ago so my memory might be wrong…

Kerri Garwood?

I expect this was Nadine Lloyd and Kerie Garwood.

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Results.asp?Season=1995-1996&AuxiliaryTeam=Ladies

Maybe it was a touch later... late 90s? I can't seem to find the ladies tab on your wonderful and greatly appreciated website I'm afraid!

Maybe Leanne Taylor?
http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Results.asp?Season=1998-1999&AuxiliaryTeam=Ladies

You can get to the women's results and tables through the Seasons pages, but data gets very patchy in the early 2000s unfortunately.

Live at the CG on You Tube at the moment.

Camera position in the North Stand is weird.

https://www.youtube.com/live/icVTb1cUTsg?si=oWTgJH1zg9Wye2fO

Is anyone else finding it odd seeing the women's team and under 18s results pop up and being pleasantly surprised by them most weeks. It's confusing enough with the first team still unbeaten, scoring shit loads and now learning how to keep a clean sheet, but having all three sides having lost one game between them so far is just weird.

Hearing that the women's manager has left to become Gloucester City men's team manager.

That must the fastest STFC managerial poaching of all time, even Wise managed 17 games...

That's a transition and a half  :)

Well that lasted long didnt it

Just the 28-0 win for the women's side today at the CG. That's a bit more like it...

Who did they play the men’s first team :D

Don't know overall relative league positions etc, but is the senior men's team the worst performing in Morfuni's less than Marvellous sporting Universe?

Embarrassing really. How can the game be expected to grow and be taken seriously when there's such huge gaps in quality such as this?

How shit must you actually be to lose 28-0? can that team actually kick the ball? I'm being genuinely serious.

Have a look at the league table - hilarious

https://fulltime.thefa.com/index.html;jsessionid=C679989D61F1B40E989D88649FAC3C5B?selectedSeason=356974228&selectedFixtureGroupAgeGroup=0&selectedDivision=539269006&selectedCompetition=0

Problem is that the divisions at this level are regional, so 48 teams on the same tier. Definitely some mismatches as a result, but in this case it's basically only one side of 12 that are truly out of their depth.

I see the companies house expert on twitter is now moaning about this result saying how it destroys selseys confidence etc

https://x.com/bcks109/status/1771931454097818060?s=46&t=sUQ-fFgelrF5oqTmo-D8tA

:o Selsey 202 goals conceded in 17 games, thats about an average 12 goals a game. Wow I thought we couldnt defend.

''Selsey were beginning to regret their decision to join the Women's South West Division''  :girlgiggle:

I also will note {and love} how the URL for this ends with ''selectedCompetition=0''  :pint: