First team - Northern Division Reserve - Midland Division 16/08/2015 H Guiseley AFC Vixens W 2 - 1
23/08/2015 A Nuneaton Town LFC W 4 - 1
30/08/2015 A Peterborough Northern Star(cup) W 5 - 0
06/09/2015 A Loughborough Foxes WFC W 4 - 3 H Stoke City Res D 1 - 1
09/09/2015 A Nottingham Forest LFC L 0 - 2
13/09/2015 H Bradford City WFC W 2 - 1 A Leicester City WFC Res W 3 - 2
20/09/2015 H Huddersfield Town LFC L 0 - 1 A Coventry United Res L 1 - 2
24/09/2015 H Nottingham Forest LFC
27/09/2015 A Guiseley AFC Vixens H League Cup Leicester City
04/10/2015 H League Cup Middlesborough H Loughborough Students Res
11/10/2015 A Bradford City WFC A Nottingham Forest Res
18/10/2015 H Blackburn Rovers LFC A Sporting Khalsa Res
25/10/2015 H Loughborough Foxes WFC
01/11/2015 H Stoke City LFC A Stoke City Res
08/11/2015 A Sporting Club Albion LFC H Cardiff City Res
15/11/2015 A Preston North End WFC H Leicester City WFC Res
22/11/2015 A Stoke City LFC A Loughborough Students Res
29/11/2015 H Coventry United Res
06/12/2015 H Nuneaton Town LFC
13/12/2015 H Sporting Club Albion LFC A Cardiff City Res
20/12/2015 A Huddersfield Town LFC
03/01/2016 A Newcastle United WFC H Nottingham Forest Res
10/01/2015 H Sporting Khalsa Res
17/01/2016 H Preston North End WFC
24/01/2016 H Newcastle United WFC
31/01/2016
07/02/2016
14/02/2016
21/02/2016 A Blackburn Rovers LFC
Finally we come to relationships. There is still much more that can be done, however the relationship with the main club is clearly better than it has been in many years. They have been wholly supportive of much that we have done and asked for and I firmly believe that they see us as excellent ambassadors of the DCFC brand. Equally the relationship with the Centre Of Excellence is without question better than it has ever been and the two parties continuing to work closely together in promoting and developing women's football at local and regional level.
On top of that the club has recently launched promotion of it's scholarship academy for 2016 in partnership with Inspire Fitness. Providing the students are secured this will see young females gaining good level sport and sport related vocational qualifications under the umbrella of DCLFC.
Upon reflection it has been a hugely productive two years which has seen us start to turn some of those failed bid crosses into ticks. There is however still much to do. We believe that we have three if not four roles to bring into the clubs structure both on and off the field. In addition to this we need to continue the positive growth of the clubs relationship with the main club, continue to raise awareness of us as a club regionally, and we need to progress to hopeful fruition a permanent or long term home base for the club.
Exciting times indeed, however for now, enjoy tonight's game
COYE, COYR
DG
Grace's Amazing World Cup Journey Derby County Ladies journey from a solitary parks side to an established Premier League club consisting of
eleven teams has been impressive, with the clubs ambitious plans to be-come a Women's Super League side now a distinct reality. Should the club make that final step then the likelihood is that their players will almost certainly start to receive call ups to senior international sides, however for centre half, Grace John the dream of playing on the world stage has now been realised, albeit through an unconventional journey path.
Although born in the UK, Grace's father spent his formative years in the small Caribbean island of Grenada before moving to England. The family have remained in contact with relatives in Grenada and when one of them was called up to represent her country at Under 15 level last year, she mentioned to her coach that she had a cousin who played in England for Derby County who just happened to be holidaying on the island. Grace takes up the story.
" The coach of Grenada's senior side suggested a trial out in regional tour-nament consisting of other Caribbean sides, however after scoring a goal in my first game our opponents raised questions about my having the rele-vant paperwork in place and I was subsequently not allowed to take any further part. Whilst this was hugely frustrating the coach said that he was impressed and would remain in touch.
He kept his word and earlier this summer I was asked if I fancied joining up with the squad to take part in a World Cup qualifying stage tournament against Puerto Rico, Haiti and Aruba. Whilst only too pleased to accept, I thought that my involvement would be limited to being a squad player with a view to gaining experience of being in and around an international side, however upon arrival at the squads training camp I was asked if I would be vice captain !
Grenada only has a population of 110,000 so we were always going to be up against it when taking on estab-lished sides such as Puerto Rica and Haiti, and so it proved be as we lost 12-0 and 13-0 respectively, however during the game with Haiti our captain had to go off and I took the arm band. We may have lost both games heavily, however I was able to say that I had lead my country in an official world cup qualifying game. The feeling of pride that I felt is really hard to put into words and my father was almost speechless.
As a small nation themselves we fancied our chances against Aruba in the final game, and in the build up to it I was firstly asked to assist in leading some of our training sessions and then on the day of the game I was in-formed that I had retained the captains arm band and would be playing up front. As expected the game proved to be a far more even contest than the previous two and we eventually won 2-0 with me managing to get on the score sheet.
To have captained my country and scored a goal in a world cup fixture, is beyond any expectation that I had at the outset of my call up. In addition to that the level of support and best wishes that I received from my team ma-tes at Derby as well as club officials and supporters as the tournament pro-gressed was also something that I shall cherish.
Hopefully this is just the start of my international career. Grenada's team is very much a work in progress, however the squad has youth on its side and the aim is to eventually qualify for the world cup finals or Olympic games. If I can play a part in that journey then it will most likely represent the pinnacle of my career, however for now I want to enjoy the moment and turn my attention to having a strong season with Derby County "
The raising of the clubs 'profile' has been an equally positive success story to reflect on, with further tireless work ensuring that the club has an established programme slot of its own on BBC Radio Derby's Sportscene, along with large weekly columns in both the Derby Telegraph and Burton Mail. Social media in the guise of the clubs website, Facebook and twitter accounts has improved immeasurably, with follower numbers increasing in tandem with that.
Structure wise, the club has clearly developed and is hopefully now very much aligned to the main club. Off the pitch the words Chairman and Junior Section are very much things of the past and the next step of moving from a committee to a board is hopefully not far away. We have a CEO who's focus is very much on making the club more business plan focused as opposed to simply chairing meetings and appointing coaches and managers, whilst in Dave Cholerton we have an Academy Director who oversees the smooth running of teams from Under 10 to Under 18. The clubs board / committee sees persons with a clear role path , whether these be administrative, media or operationally focused. On the pitch, huge strides have been made under Stuart Wilson and his team at senior level, whilst we have a strong spine of talented and dedicated coaches running from Reserve to Under 10 level, that has been aided by our Director Of Recruitment, Pete Johnson.
Facility wise, little has changed on the surface in terms of playing and training, however scratch beneath the surface and the club came within a whisker of securing the long term lease on the Varsity Grange site, whilst other venues in terms of both playing and training are being explored. Ideally we would like a home of our own from which all of our teams could play and train, however if that is not to be, then as a board we need to be satisfied that we have explored every avenue before committing to a long term lease at someone else's venue. None of us will be involved for ever and we have a duty to ensure that any decisions that we have made during our tenure were fully informed and right at the time.
Chief’s
Chatter With Chief
Executive Officer
Duncan Gibb
At Sunday's game with Huddersfield I was asked by one of our supporters how long I had been the CEO at Derby. He may well of course have been subtly suggesting that it was time that I considered handing over the reigns to someone else, however regardless of that, it hit me that next week will mark two years in post. A good time to therefore reflect a little on what has happened in that time.
Back in September 2013, the club had not long seen a WSL bid turned down by the FA and in hindsight as harsh as it sounds, the custodians of the game were right to say no. Whilst the FA's Dear John letter was big on rejection, it was very small in terms of the detail behind the thumbs down, however as an outsider looking in at the time, my reading of the failed bid was that the club was not in the right place in terms of financial investors, media presence, club structure, facilities, key relationships and overall general depth.
This was far from a criticism of the Chairman at the time or the clubs board, in fact quite the opposite. They had built things from a single parks side playing regional football to a club consisting of nine sides with the senior team operating at WPL level, however despite this incredible journey, in fairness to the FA, the club was not ready for the WSL. So what has been done over the past two years, and equally importantly, what is still to be done.
In terms of investors, tireless work has been done on this front, and the club has now gone from having the odd periodic investor to a portfolio of thirty five of them. These club partners see all eleven of the clubs sides sponsored, along with the senior teams away kit and management team. In addition to that individual players are also sponsored. This investment has allowed all of the clubs teams to renew their kits each season, as well as compensating for the loss of a five figure sum derived from DCFC match ticket sales. Sugar daddy's are a clubs best friend, however they come with risk and a comprehensive portfolio of investors minimises the level of risk should one leave.
Derby County Ladies FC - Nurturing and developing the
football talent of young players into elite women footballers
DERBY COUNTY LFC Club Colours:
White Shirts, Black Shorts, Black Socks
Squad to be selected from:
Louisa Abbey
Lorna Abbey
Philippa Cassidy
Holly Chalmers
Megan Clarkson
Amber Denny
Emily Gillott
Sam Griffiths
Jemma Grimadell
Hatty Heaney
Kira Hobday
Jessica Howard
Tasha Hughes
Emily Jeffery
Grace John
Amy Johnson
Melissa Johnson
Mica Jones
Nicole Ledgister
Rebecca Lombard-Thompson
Katie Lowder
Sarah Morgan
Amy Pashley
Aimee Perry
Megan Pittman
Lauren Steadman
Ellena Steedman
Lauren Taft
Megan Tinsley
Eleanor Towers
Hannah Ward
Cecilia Webb
Georgina Williams
Manager: Stuart Wilson
Assistants:
Jenny Simpson, Neil Wilson
Coach: James Taylor
Physion: Hannah Cornell
NOTTINGHAM FOREST LFC Club Colours: Red Shirts, Red Shorts, Red Socks
