Page 6 - Keynsham Town Ladies v Swindon town 160323

KEYNSHAM TOWN LADIES 6
At the AJN today…

Swindon Town W.F.C.

Swindon Town Women Football Club are a women's association football club
affiliated to Swindon Town F.C. They were founded in 1993 and joined the
Southern Region Women's Football League. Playing in Division Four they
played their first competitive fixture on Sunday 5 September away to
Southampton Reserves, winning by four goals to one. The first home league
match was played on Sunday 10 October against Reading Royals. The game,
played at Wootton Bassett, was “Kicked – Off” by Doreen Dart the Mayor of
Thamesdown (as it was then) with the Town winning by eight goals to two.
Swindon finished their first season as Division Four League Champions and
also won the Southern Region 5-a-Side Tournament.
In the next two seasons Swindon Town Ladies were Champions of Divisions Three and Two
respectively. In their first season in Division One they finished in mid-table and supplied eight players
to the newly formed Wiltshire County Ladies team that won the South West Counties Championship.
In the 1996-97 Season the Town were Runner's up in the Southern Region Division One and were
beaten finalists in the League Cup. Again Town players formed the nucleolus of the County Women's
team that finished second in the Counties Championship.

The 1998 / 1999 Season saw Swindon Town Ladies elected to be founder members of the F.A. South
West Combination League. They finished the inaugural season in Third place and won the
“Ambassador” South West Combination League Cup, beating Cheltenham 4-0 in the Final. The Town
also set a record when the starting line – up of the County Women's Team were all from the same
club. In the 1999 / 2000 Season the Town again finished third in the League and retained the
League Cup by beating League Champions Newport 1-0 in the Final. The 2000 / 2001 Season saw
the Town finish third once again and win the League Cup for the third consecutive season, beating
Cheltenham in the Final 4-2.
In the 2006 – 2007 season the club moved towards single aged banding and ran teams from under
8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; and since the age requirement to play Senior football has been raised from
14 to 16, under 15 and 16 teams were also added, giving the total number of players within the club
in excess of 140 players. Also in 2006 Swindon Town Ladies were awarded the F.A. Charter
Standard. This was in recognition of meeting the Football Association's requirements for Qualified
Coaches, First Aiders etc. and everyone involved in running the club being C.R.B. checked. The club
still holds this Charter Standard.
Inconsistency during the 2007 – 2008 season saw a seventh-place finish in the league, although the
highlight to the season was winning through to the fourth round of the Woman's FA cup and drawn
at home to the competition’s most successful team Doncaster Belles, where the game was played at
the County Ground.
With the structure of women's football in England being re-organised due to the introduction of FA
WSL 2 in 2014, Swindon Town were moved into the new South West Division One of the FA Women's
Premier League for the 2014–15 season. They almost won the division at their first attempt, but a
three-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player cost them the title, leaving them in third place
at the end of the season, just one point off the top of the table. They finally achieved promotion the
following season and although they are back in Tier 4, the recent affiliation with the men’s team has
given much optimism for the future.