You might say the landscape of local football is changing – with thousands of active league clubs, the women’s game has grown up from the margins and shows no signs of shrinking back. Still, it was a familiar scene that greeted us last Sunday when we paid a visit to our new sponsored team, Headington Ladies…
A typically gloomy November morning gave just enough light to make out the 3G pitch, hiding behind a school just beyond the city ring road. The pre-match passing drills are already underway, and, on the near touchline, a group of followers and onlookers are sheltering in their hoods, waiting for an important lower-table clash against Barton Utd to get underway.
I shove down a squashed Tunnocks tea cake to get the blood flowing and head over in search of my two interviewees: wing-back and vice-captain, Madhana Loredo and centre-back / club-secretary, Rachael Nimmo. Both players have been active in local women’s football for years and have seen the sport develop. We chat before they take to the pitch for an important league fixture against relegation rivals, Barton Utd.
First things first, how and when did they start playing?
Rachael: With my brother in the garden.
Madhana: I started playing football as a child in my back-yard like everybody else.
Yeah. This is football we’re talking about after all, not lawn bowls. They throw me a lifeline…
Madhana: *I didn’t really take it very seriously because I wasn’t really allowed to – it was an Asian thing… *
Rachael: … it’s not just Asian…
Madhana: … My parents never allowed me to. But then I moved to Oxford about 4 years ago, and then my housemate actually got me to play football at Keble [College]. At the first training session, I didn’t do anything. I just sat there; I was terrified because… I don’t know why.
They sketch out their nomadic club careers, driven in part by a sport that is only recently finding stability at a local level.
Madhana: From then on, I went through lots of teams: Mansfield road, other colleges sometimes, 5-a-side. And then Mansfield Road broke down because they didn’t have enough players. Then we were going to merge with Headington, but it didn’t happen for lots of reasons. Now, I play full-time at Headington.
Rachael: I was playing for the Chesterfields team. And then I moved to Oxford for university and played with the college team. Later, I joined a team called Spikes which was set up in about 2002 with the aim of getting women into playing football. At that point, we were playing against a team called Oxfam which was just a group of players and women from the charity who wanted to play football.
Spikes vs Oxfam. Sounds ominous somehow… like an angry sergeant major shredding a handmade birthday card…
It sounds a lot more aggressive that it was! Spikes was a very PC team - rather than ‘Man On!’ we would shout ‘Person Approaching!’.
(That should be universal.)
Then there was a sort of proper league that got set up and which I think originally was Berks & Bucks League. We ended up joining as Spikes. Later, we named ourselves Morris Motors because we joined Morris Motors social club.
Oxfam later developed into what is now Headington. They built up their team and eventually became Headington athletic. Then they rebranded and dropped the ‘athletic’, becoming Headington ladies.
The shifting tectonics of club football at the turn of the millennium... and a loss of athleticism. We’re edging dangerously close to ‘a morning with Alan Shearer’.
Or rather not; there’s far more to this story than nostalgia …
Madhana: Yeah, for a while Oxford had a really tricky time with women’s football. Nobody really wanted to play. Both Headington and Mansfield Road were struggling for players. Every season there would be a huge influx of players for pre-season training, then they’d all disappear by December and January. It seems all clubs have had that problem. But hopefully… we’re able to keep our numbers up.
Are player numbers the biggest challenge moving forward?
Rachael: We have a lot of challenges I think. The problem we have is that we are not affiliated to any larger club. We're very independent, and we're very proud of that, but, at the same time, keeping players, attracting players and finding facilities that you can use, having exclusive use of the facility [is difficult]. Sometimes you've got a fixture that comes through, you try to book and then it's already booked by somebody else.
If only there were a service out there that could help.
… this is where Pitchbooking comes in. We actually just booked a pitch through Pitchbooking for that purpose. So, from an admin point of view, that’s made everything a lot easier. It’s so much easier than trying to go through the facility owner!
Where do they see the club in three years?
Madhana: Premier League!
Rachael: I think we don't really have a long-term goal. We only set some short-term goals for this season. I think we would like to have a bit more stability and maybe that might mean trying to get some sort of arrangement with a local youth team so that we can get some players coming in and form a development team. We’ve got more people than we know what to do with.
Madhana: At the same time, we want to keep our players. We’ve now set up two training sessions in the week and people really want to go to it, so that’s great!
On that note of optimism, we turn our attention to Headington’s relegation fight…
Rachael: I think we’re on the up! We’ve won our last 2 games. We’re gaining momentum in terms of working together and doing what [coach] Marc actually wants us to do. It took a bit of time and maybe a couple of seasons to get to a point where we figured out what system works for us. Now we’re at that point where … click … oh, this works!. Last weekend definitely felt like that.
Madhana: It really did! And we want to keep up that positive vibe. We’re all here because we want to have fun, right, and we want to play football… we want to win.
As a wise man with a beer gut once bellowed, you’ve got to WANT IT…
Rachael: It took us a while to try and find that. We had to go for quite a bit of soul-searching because I think we all did want to win. You have to admit that it’s more fun when you’re winning, but at the same time you want to be inclusive not be ‘all out, that’s what we want’. So we had to get that balance right.
We all know goal celebrations are a big part of wanting it. Are the girls more Cantona or Crouch?
Madhana: We don’t celebrate enough.
Rachael: [Goalkeeper] Hillier is always shouting at us: ‘CELEBRATE!’...
Madhana: …that’s our celebration - we’re told to celebrate!
Rachael: I always do a cartwheel if I score a goal. I don’t score very often. Two years ago was the last time I scored.
Two years is a long time when it comes to cartwheels. I can’t help hoping for her health that the drought continues.
And after the game? Wanting it is normally thirsty work…
Rachael: We go to the pub after the game to have chips, sandwiches and drinks at the George Inn in Littlemore… plug for them. But we don’t really go out that often at night.
Relieved to have uncovered a clear area for improvement, I turn to the professional women’s game. I’m interested to hear if there are players there who inspire them.
If they could sign one pro for Headington, who would it be?
Madhana: I have one…
Rachael: … I wonder if it’s the same one… the goalkeeper?...
Madhana: (laughter) I was thinking that!
Rachael: I really like Rachel Yankey and they way she played. She was always running up the wing, putting balls in, and I think that would be really useful to our style of play at the minute.
Madhana: I would probably says Nobbs [Jordan Nobbs]. She is very skilful on the ball, and she is really good at staying calm under pressure.
Time to wrap things up, as the ladies turn their attention to the day’s match. They know they’re in for a scrap.
Rachael: Well, they're quite physical usually, so we’re going to have to be strong, and we're not going to get wound up. We’re just going to have to stay calm, move the ball quickly, and then we'll be fine.
Madhana: Yeah, stay super relaxed and focused on the game.
I doubted they’d want to tempt fate with any predictions…
Rachael: 5-1 to us.
After a disastrous first half, going in 0-5, Headington produced a dominant second-half display but couldn’t quite pull the game level. Final score: 5-3 to Barton.
Many thanks to Madhana and Rachael for kindly sparing the time to talk to us ahead of their match.