Reading Football Club Women

Reading Football Club Women is an English women’s football club that is an affiliate of Reading FC. A fairly young club, the women of Reading are positioned smack down in the middle of the pack in the top-tier of English women’s football. Women from Reading have competed in multiple levels of English football before reaching the top level. The team is based in Reading outside of London.

History

In May of 2006, the male club Reading FC ended their affiliation with Reading Royals LFC and started their own women’s team. This was how the Reading FC Women got their start. In their first season after being created, they pulled out an unexpected and impressive Southern Region Women’s Football League and Cup double. The success in their premier year got the Reading Women a promotion to South West Combination Women’s Football League. The success did not stop or stall there, as they had an unbeaten 2007-2008 season and earned a promotion to Premier League Northern Division.

Next year was not as kind as they finished the Northern Division in 6th place. Following year Reading Women were transferred to the Premier League Southern Division for the 2009-2010 season. They finished the league strong and ended as the runners-up, securing a promotion to the then 2nd best league FA Women’s Premier League National Division.

Recent Accomplishments

The impressive track record of great first seasons continued in the National Division, which saw Reading Women finish in 3rd place. In March of 2012, they lost their best goal scorer and finished in 9th in the 2011-12 season and being relegated back to the Southern Division for the following season.

2012-13 saw them win the FA Premier League Southern Division by a wide margin that saw netted them a goal difference of 41. 2014 was the big break for Reading as they were granted a license to play in the FA Women’s Super League 2. The following season they won the division and were promoted to the current top-tier of English football FA WSL 1. They have been competing at this level since, managing to remain in the league for the last 4 years.

Current Squad & Staff

Reading Football Club Women have a total of 22 players with a 23rd player on loan from Chelsea. The goal is protected by #1 Grace Moloney, while the top scorer for the team is midfielder Fara Williams who has 6 goals and 2 assists in 1048 minutes played. The forward Brooke Chaplen is close behind her with 5 goals and 2 assists. These two ladies are responsible for 11 of the 16 goals scored by the team. The leader and captain of the team is the experienced defender Kirsty Pearce.

The team consists mainly of English players with 7 players from four other nations. The team is led off the field by the Director of football and 1st Team Manager Kelly Chambers. She is a former player and captain of Reading FC. Her Assistant Manager is Sean Cousins another former manager.

Stadium & Kits

At the end of 2015, Reading FC Women announced they would play the next two seasons’ home games in Adams Park, High Wycombe. The stadium has a capacity of 9,617, which is in the allowed standards of FA WSL 1. Four years later and the team still calls Adams Park home.

The team wears their affiliate Reading FC’s colors. Blue shorts, and blue and white striped tops for their home kits. For the away games team has chosen a bright neon green-yellow jersey with black stripes.