Life in the SWFL is built on strong foundations: building a team to last

Women’s football requires determination and resilience, and launching a senior team into the fiercely competitive SWFL is not without its challenges.

These include making sure players and sponsors feel visible and valued, especially when results are going against you.

Scottish Women’s Football’s Club and Competitions co-ordinator Gareth Gorman visited Govan recently ahead of Benburb’s home game against Ardrossan Winton Rovers, to hear from Benburb skipper Robyn Gibbon and officials about the togetherness and determination required to make it happen in SWFL South.

Club official Flo Witherow

1. What motivated the club to launch a senior women’s team? 

With an established men’s set up and a growing youth section, it made sense to create an arm of the club dedicated to women and girls. The women’s team was the first step, however we’re now in the process of creating a girls pathway, with under 16s now entered into SWF competitions.

2. What were the biggest challenges in your first season?

For clubs setting up without an established ground, finding and funding the relevant facilities can be an absolute nightmare so we’re extremely fortunate to have had New Tinto Park right from the very early days of the women’s team being formed. That said, finances are still a real challenge and we’re constantly trying to come up with creative schemes and ideas for fundraising to avoid fee increases for players.

3. How did you approach recruitment?

We use social media both for player recruitment and general awareness of the team’s activities. It’s actually one of our players, Amy, who runs our socials and she does a really amazing job- we’re a new team, with a fairly small committee but we are so proud of our social media content- it is up there with the top clubs!

In terms of player recruitment, along with social media, word of mouth absolutely should not be underestimated. Several players are here because their friend or maybe former team mate encouraged them to come along. Our squad is so diverse too in terms of ages and experience- some of the girls are playing competitor football for the very first time here, while others have been playing for decades! It makes for a really inclusive environment, and allows for lots of peer to peer learning too!

4. How did you set realistic targets for the first season?

Being totally honest, the real aim in year one was to ensure we still existed by the end of the season. So many new teams come along and sadly with one challenge or another they don’t last. We wanted to build strong foundations. A win would have been nice (lol) but it’s far more important to create something that will still be here once the existing squad have hung up their boots than have a season or two of glory without any real plan or structure in place.

5. What early achievements are you most proud of?

The togetherness and determination of the team is an achievement in itself. It can be tough staying positive and focused at any competitive club, but it’s a million times harder when results aren’t going your way. But everyone sees the bigger picture, sees that we are improving, and wants to stick around.

6. What advice would you give to clubs considering entering a new senior team into SWFL?

Ensure you have budgeted properly for the season ahead (and beyond). Running a team is an expensive business and you don’t want to get caught short down the line.

Check there’s definitely enough players in the area for the team to be viable- people get injured or move on for any number of reasons and scraping a starting eleven together week after week is not fun.

Set up a proper committee with defined roles early , otherwise everything lands with one or two people and the burnout is real!

Team Captain Robyn Gibbon

1. How did you get involved with Benburb?

Like Flo mentioned, word of mouth has been a big part of getting new players to join the team. Both I and vice captain Julia were asked to join by a friend who was already on the team.

2. How quickly did the group bond?

The team didn’t take too long to bond! At the very start the majority of the team were young players who got on quickly. Around the middle of our first season the whole team learned to work together and become a unit.

3. What’s been the toughest part as players?

Heavy defeats throughout our first season were probably the toughest to deal with and made it difficult to keep players heads up.

4. What’s been the biggest highlight so far?

The biggest highlight has to be our first ever win against Dalbeattie this season. This came after almost 1 ½ seasons of improving our score lines but not quite getting a win, and was such a joyful moment for the team and our coach Peter.

5. How do you maintain motivation during the season?

Getting to know one another off the pitch helped us keep the motivation up even when we weren’t getting success. Our previous coach Greig also made sure to bring a positive attitude into every game and encourage us to put our best effort in for each match. We also try to focus on how much progress we have made from when the team first formed, so even if we’re not getting points we can still appreciate how far we’ve come as a whole.

6. What would you say to players who are thinking about joining a brand-new team?

For any players that are considering joining a new team I’d say just give it a shot. You can’t tell everything about a team from their score lines so the best way to get a feel of the culture is to try training with them.

7. Where do you hope the team will be in two/ three seasons time?

In two or three seasons I’d like to see the team on a winning streak, and competing with the top of table.

All images: Amy Allan

Community clubs have until 30th April to notify Scottish Women’s Football about their intention of joining the senior pyramid. This is open to any team who already holds SWF Community membership, with some restrictions on teams expelled or withdrawn from previous seasons.