The First Denton 'Girls' Teams

A history lesson for you all, just to give some variation to the usual match reports. Back in 1997 I helped start the first girls team in Denton, my daughter Natasha (the girl with the coach's arm around her in the middle), was my first signing. The Team was called Denton Eagles, and here is the crest of the now defunkt club:-

The coach Stacey Copeland went on to play at a high level, including England U21's, and just recently, has made her 3rd come back to Denton, playing the remainer of the season with the ladies. The guy in the purple shirt (he never was a fashion guru),is Billy Johnston, who together with his son Mike (two to the right of Billy in a white shirt), today help run the very successful ladies team at Denton Town. Many of the girls in the picture continued to play football up until very recently, and Vicky (GK above and son of Billy/brother of Mike), still plays for us, celebrating her 21st birthday this weekend. In them days, we regularly got thrashed 15, 20 and even 26-0, but we persevered.

In 2000 we moved onto Denton Villa, who were firmly established as a Football and Netball club, but only had a trial girls team, who we played before completing the switch. The picture on the left is Denton Villa 13's A who I helped run with Ron Halsall (pictured), whom some of you might remember from a couple of seasons back. On the right were our rivals (LOL Mike), Denton Villa 13's B. Derby day was great has we used to wind the two teams up, and it created an electic atmosphere. Best memory for me was when my daughter (GK left pic), scored directly from her own area, and the team went wild. I used to get match reports in the advertiser in them days as well, but just don't have the time now - cue parent with time on their hands to get it going again.

Notice anybody in this picture taken at United's traning ground Dec 2001? Well, the 14's should. On the far right hand side is Tim who had only just joined us, and just in front, our little mascot, Ruby. Aw, cute or what?On the left hand side is Lee Halsall, son of Ron who I mentioned earlier. Tim, now of course runs the 14's with Alan Brewer, who between them make a fabulous coaching team.

During 2002 myself and Ron set-up a womens' team at Denton Town, with a view to a full merger between Town and Villa at a later date. Unfortunately, due to a clash of personalilites, the merger didn't happen, and myself, Ron and several other managers opted to leave Villa and join Town, with the junior teams commencing their first season in Town colours during 2003. Below is a picture of the ladies after winning the cup in 2007.

I also would like to mention Alan Harvey (pic below in the middle, to his right Adam Taylor now with Fletcher Moss). Alan has been involved with girls football probably as long as me, bringing his daughter, Kate, to Denton Villa after her previous team, Tameside, told her the team had folded (telling her at the ground on the first day of that particular season). Alan ran a very successful 14's team a few season ago, winning several tournaments, and his GK Natalie Williams, sister of today's 14's GK Chloe is still a part of Denton Town ladies. His current team, the 11's (assisted by Kate and parents John and Fonzo), are well on their way to winning an historic treble - fingers crossed. Below is a picture of Denton Town's u10's Red and Blue teams, taken in 2004. At the time Fletcher Moss didn't have enough players, so we allowed their girls to become part of our club for one season, whilst FM went about finding more players. This was widely applauded at the time by the league, FA and made front page of the BBC's Grass Root Sports website.

This was the team Keely, Sophie and Megan of today's 14's joined. Ironically, due to a shortage of players, DT had to fold the team, and with the exception of the three girls mentioned above, the rest of the team went to Fletcher Moss with our blessings. The Fletcher Moss U13's have just been crowned champions of the SMGFL.

Also, Amy Mather who is coaching the 12's, has been with Denton for years, I signed her on in about 2002 as a player. Here she is below with the 14's from a few seasons ago, together with her dad Steve. Amy has many qualifications now in a variety of sports, and works for Tameside as a multi-sport coach.

Recent additions to our coaching squad are Rick Cartner who plays for the mens team and scored the winner in last year's cup final. Rick is working along side Amy. Also, Sarah, who joined us last summer, but went coaching in America for a while. She's back now, and assists me with the Girls Soccer School. And, though not officially part of Denton Town, Lee Prince has also taken several of the Girls Soccer School's sessions.

That more or less brings us upto date with the female side of Denton Town. Today, we are one of the most pro-active clubs in womens' football, within the Greater Manchester Area as the following shows: -

Ladies - Double winners of Lancs League and Cup 2007 and currently in a good position in the North West Women's Regional Football League.

14's Girls - Won the South Manchester Girls League 2007 and currently on track to do the treble. We have also embarked upon a challenging project to take all the girls on a player exchange trip to Texas, USA in 2009, and if successful, could open the door for other teams to travel abroad in years to come.

12's Girls -Difficult season so far, but it looks like they have started to turn the corner, and we are confident they can do well in the League Cup just commenced in the Oldham League.

11's Girls - Won the Tameside Cup last year, and like the 14's are on course for the treble in the South Manchester Girls League.

Girls Soccer School - One of an handful of clubs in Gtr. M/cr who are pushing for girls football at the under 8/9's age group, giving girls the opportunity to play football in all female teams, rather than the present system where they have no choice but to join a boys team, until they reach 9/10 years of age. We have captured the imagination of local leagues and Manchester Football Association, who we hope to have meetings with in the very near future.

The above is also used to mentor up and coming coaches/referees such as Nicole, Chloe and Georgia from the 14's, in prepartion for them entering the Step into Sport program once they have all attained 14 years of age.

In addition, we were one of the original clubs to join the Tameside Girls Football Development roup, headed by Matthew Johnson, and still attend today.

Hope you enjoyed the little read.

Nigel.