Derby County Women are an English women's football club affiliated with Derby County F.C. The first team currently play in the Division.
In 2008–09 the club won promotion to the league from the Midland Combination Women's Football League, after beating Crewe 4–2 at Pride Park. In addition to the first team, the club runs a reserve team who compete within the national reserve team pyramid, and nine academy teams that compete in the Derbyshire Girls League and the Central Warwickshire Girls League. The club enjoys a strong working relationship with the Derby County Girls Regional Talent Centre, allowing a dedicated player pathway from youth football into the Derby County Women senior squads.
History
The Birth of Derby County FC Women
The club that was to become Derby County WFC started out as the idea of Sheila Rollinson and Jess Reid, who at the time were both playing for the Coventry-based women's 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 club's name change to Beacon Wanderers. During this period Dave Elks enjoyed a lengthy spell as the club's 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 Council's Parkers Piece ground became the club's 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 led 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 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, 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.