On a Tuesday evening that rapidly descended from the unseasonably mild to downright chilly, I ventured to Princess Park, the new and impressive home of Dartford Football Club to watch a much derided version of our beautiful game, the FA Women’s Premier League.
The Women’s game is seen by many as far to inferior to warrant serious attention, funding or use of club resources and despite growing popularity, not least among the number wishing to participate, you suspect that such attitudes will be an obstacle for many years to come.
The match in question was Charlton Women's first home encounter of the season and only their second match of the campaign, whilst many of their counterparts, including the nights opponents, had completed eight matches in a season that for some had been delayed by England's involvement in the World Cup in China.
For Charlton however, the late start was as a result of summer upheaval, recriminations and rescue packages that left a squad of two to build a season upon. The rights and wrongs of the original decision by Charlton to withdraw funding of their Women's set up, are for discussions elsewhere. But the continuation of an Academy, a centre of excellence and of course a first team to participate in the FAWPL comes on the back of a great deal of hard work behind the scenes that should not go un-noticed.
Whatever the feelings of those within the game, those who chose to ply their trade for other teams and those with sceptical eyes looking in from outside, Charlton Athletic's commitment to the community remains at the highest level.
Having recruited players from Sunday Leagues and junior level, the young players currently under tutelage from a Charlton legend, Paul Mortimer, know they face an uphill battle to remain in the Premier League and as the first match against Bristol City proved, the gap between Morts young charges and the rest, is significant in the extreme.
This second game against Watford, who as with Bristol in the first, had been soundly beaten by the Addicks last term was to prove no different and despite some encouraging moments and determined effort not least from current Captain and one of the few who stayed with the club, Kimberley Dixson, the match was largely one sided and a six goal deficit was added to the seven shipped in the opening game, both with no reply.
Morts post match summary was honest, intelligent but above all enthusiastic, much as the way he graced the game in a Charlton shirt and you suspect that the players in his care will find it hard not to improve, learn and enjoy their football. Whether that will be enough to keep them in the top league remains to be seen.
As the match was played out I remembered the negative views of the Women's game that I had heard from many sources and was curious that although these same people would never dream of comparing the likes of Charlton with Real Madrid, or Dartford to Barcelona, the comparisons with the men’s game are still constant sticks to beat down, what is ultimately, still, just a game of football.
And this game of football, which had it's share of skill, neat passing, flowing movement, crunching tackles, mistakes, more mistakes and inept refereeing, just happened to be played by women, 16 of whom wore the red shirt of Charlton, we hope with pride and certainly by the level of commitment showed by players such as Toni-Anne Wayne, whose late departure to hospital following a sickening clash of heads, the determination to succeed and improve is clearly evident.
You may argue that these women do not deserve our credit. You may argue that they do not deserve our money, but as individuals who just want to play football at the best level possible, they certainly deserve our respect.
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Lovely piece of writing there, they'll appreciate your words.
http://www.charltonlife.com/blog/?p=140
i hope that those of us who can attend the games can post their thoughts on how they're doing this season ?????
Isn't the point of a specatator sport that you go and watch someone do something much better than you could ever do yourself - otherwise what's the point? Fair play to them for doing what they enjoy doing, but I still don't see why they get any more attention than, say, the youth team.