Page 3 - Keynsham Town Ladies programme

KEYNSHAM TOWN LADIES 3

Manager’s Notes

After a horrific period when the pandemic stopped all football, we
find the start to a new season.

Our visitors today are London Bees who have experienced relegation
from the Tier 2 (the Championship). Consequently, we know very
little about them or how much their squad has changed since last
season. We trust that they have had a safe journey to Somerset today.

Our pre-season preparations have had an element of start stop due
to player availability and we have won two and lost two from our
pre-season games against fairly modest opposition. On the player
front, we have three important signings so far this season. First, we
welcome back Laura Williams to Keynsham after her spell at Yeovil
Town (now Bridgwater). Laura was our players player in our
promotion year and she will again be both making and scoring goals.
Laura has had an old injury recurrence in pre-season which has
limited appearances to a single game. I am hopeful that she will train
this week and possibly play today. Megan Wood has joined us from
Buckland Athletic and adds to our wing options. Our third main
signing is Georgia Evans, a strong midfielder who has represented Wales at senior, U19, U17 and
U16 levels as well as playing for Bristol City, Yeovil Town and Charlton.
This season sees the impact of the FA’s meddling in the structure of the FA Women’s National
League. Having withdrawn any relegation last season and promoted two teams as well as
relegating one from the Championship, we find ourselves in a division of fourteen this season.
Again the FA has changed all the rules, without any discussion at the AGM and will now relegate
up to five clubs depending on how the promotion and relegation works out between the FA
Women’s National League and the FA Championship. This maximum number would represent
37% of teams being relegated out of the 14 members for this season in the Premier South
division. When I have mentioned this figure to anyone else in football, they have just stated how
ridiculous this really is. Clubs work tirelessly to achieve their league position and this sort of
negative headwind is unacceptable and detrimental.

The FA could easily have kept the divisional numbers to 14 without problems. Alternatively, the
FA could have taken three years to get back to 12 members per division and so minimised the
impact in any one year. Unfortunately, the FA are too remote from grass roots football to realise
these facts and attend to members’ wishes.

Spectators will see that we have a busy start to the season in August and September as the
League, understandably tries to front end load fixtures to minimise winter disruption from the
pandemic. This includes evening kick offs as well as on Sunday’s.
There is no doubt that the virus is still out there and we ask
all spectators to act responsibly and sanitise their hands on
arrival and on leaving. Please keep a good distance, if
possible, at all times. Moreover, inside the main building,
such as to use the toilets, please wear a mask and ensure you
leave by the open fire door because the ventilation is poor
and crossing others in the corridor is not advised.