Call to fans to support pioneering women’s club

Kelly Lindsey said relegation had had a "massive impact" on the team

A football club which pioneered the women’s game says it hopes support from the community will help it bounce back from relegation.

Lewes FC is calling on fans to “pack the Pan” on Sunday when their women’s first team takes on Gwalia United in the FA Women’s National League.

The team is hoping for its first win of the season at The Dripping Pan in Lewes.

Chief operating officer, Kelly Lindsey, said: “We’re a community club, we want to show that regardless, sometimes when you’re struggling the most is when you need the most support and the people behind you."

The Rooks were relegated from the Women’s Championship to tier three of the football pyramid last season.

With two draws and two defeats so far this season, Ms Lindsey said relegation had had a “massive impact”.

"There’s an emotional toll, mental health toll, obviously a financial toll,” she said. “And it’s really important that we regroup and reset.”

Hannah Godfrey said the team was in a "rebuilding process"

Many of this season’s squad are young players with no previous experience of first team football.

The more experienced players in the squad say they all need to work together to perform well in the new league.

Defender Hannah Godfrey, one of only a handful of players retained from last season, is confident that results will come.

"The more positive you can be about it, bringing what you can bring, I think the sooner we do that the performances will follow," she said.

The Rooks were relegated from the Women’s Championship last season

Through its shared ownership scheme, anyone can buy a stake in the East Sussex club.

It has also long campaigned for a greater share of FA Cup prize money for women and in 2017, it became the first club to give its female players equal budgets and facilities to its men.

The club’s latest campaign, titled See Us As We Are is calling for the sport to stop seeing female players as “small men” and providing them with kits and boots that fit and support the female form.

“There just isn’t a voice like Lewes FC’s anywhere else in the women’s game that’s calling for gender equity in football,” Karen Dobres, the club’s special projects lead, added.