Finchampstead at Wembley? And Farnham Town upset a few

We've had an idea..

Abi Ticehurst

and

Tom Canning

Aug 16, 2024

In this newsletter

A women’s Trophy and Vase competition?
A Farnham Town response
What the papers say

A women’s Trophy final at Wembley?

I’d like to caveat this week’s newsletter with the question I’m posing to you all very much being a shower thought.

Recently, I’ve found myself increasingly irritated by the content published by the Adobe Women’s FA Cup accounts across social media and their incessant focus on FA Women’s Super League (FA WSL) clubs in the competition all the while seemingly ignoring the 502 other entrants. It boiled over into a disgruntled thread on Twitter this week having seen an Instagram post about Carli Lloyd who hasn’t played in England for over 7 years.

It got me thinking…do we need a Women’s Trophy and Vase?

The Trophy would be played by teams in Tiers 3 and 4, where our top-of-tree Maidenhead United sit, and the Vase would be contested by Tiers 5,6 and 7. The ultimate prize being the chance to play at Wembley. Picture the scene, the black and red stripes of Finchampstead bounding across the green carpet of HA9 in the Vase or the sky blue of Woodley United strolling out the tunnel as they battle for silverware in the Trophy.

The FA released a statement this week on a ‘new era’ of professional women’s football, but for us it read like widening the gap further across the pyramid. Surely a chance to play in a national cup with the hallowed arches the end goal, would do wonders to bridge the growing division between the professionals and grassroots?

Whilst the men’s calendar looks crammed with fixtures, year on year in Berkshire, there are often weeks of lulls for our women’s teams who sit twiddling their thumbs, so more cups games with a chance of prize money to boost their club’s development and a trip to a team they’ve not encountered before is surely a winner.

We’ve got visions of a bumper Vase and Trophy weekend with the men’s finals played on the Saturday and the women’s on the Sunday - or dare we suggest the Saturday is Vase day and the Sunday is Trophy day - one ticket for 4 games.

We know ultimately that travelling the country to play against teams can be a bank breaker [they manage it just fine in the FA Sunday Cup - Editor], but surely cup competitions like the Trophy and Vase would be the awakening some need to realise the now, as well as the future of women’s football is big and bright and can flourish with investment from the bottom up.

So, do we need a Women’s Trophy and Vase?

‘I can’t tweet, I’m getting the ball out the bush’

This week, Farnham Town’s Director raised the hackles of traditional non-league fans and volunteers with a Tweet designed to drive engagement and filthy blue-tick lucre.

Harry Hugo wrote: “I am shocked with how bad the attendances were yesterday for Isthmian South Central games on opening day. Clubs must do better [pained sad expression emoji].”

It raised mine. But then I thought about it a bit more, and something my boss said to me when I started my new job in January which I’ll paraphrase as: “You’ve a short window of having a clear mindset before you get bogged down in the day-to-day, history and legacy.”

He was right. And that, I suppose, is the advantage Hugo has over the rest of us at the moment. Of course, it also helps to have the ability to sign players from two divisions higher and an agency that specialises in modern social advertising and influencers to hand.

As well-intentioned as Harry is - and it’s brilliant he’s bringing focus to a very traditional non-league football club near us - it’s the fanboys that make things slightly worse for those of us who’ve experienced updating the socials while retrieving a ball, creating the matchday programme while trying to work and finding more people to help with it all.