Gwalia United eye 'special cup run' amid bigger aims

Gwalia United boss Fern Burrage-Male is a former player and also managed Pontypridd Town

Gwalia United's long-term ambition is a place at the top of the English women's football pyramid, but on Sunday the third tier side's focus turns to the Women's FA Cup first round.

They host a fourth tier side, National League Division One South West Swindon Town, at Spytty Park, Newport (14:00 GMT) as Wales’ only representatives in the English system.

Gwalia are currently ninth in the 12-team FA Women's National League Southern Premier Division and co-owner Julian Jenkins hopes for a "special cup run", starting against Swindon.

"In the third round the big guns come in, and I've always said since the beginning of this project, ‘what does a crowd of Gwalia United versus Manchester United look like?’," said Jenkins.

Such fixtures are also on general manager Trystan Bevan's mind. He believes the club can gain promotion to the top flight Women’s Super League [WSL] in "three to five years".

Jenkins backed up that aim, telling BBC Sport Wales: "We don't want to be a club in the WSL, we want to be a WSL club."

In September 2023, Jenkins took over the club, then known as Cardiff City Ladies, along with Australian businessman Damien Singh - the pair heading up the Dragons23 consortium that took charge - but it has not been smooth sailing.

"I always think about our first game in charge, Damien and I, we played Portsmouth away," Jenkins said.

"We didn't really have a manager... so we had the bus driver running the team with a goalkeeping coach.

"I remember their manager speaking to Gareth and I was thinking, 'he thinks he's our manager', but he was our bus driver and kit man. We lost 9-0."

Things at Gwalia look very different now, Jenkins explained: "We're in a new stadium. We had 1,200 people there. We’re eyeing up a new training ground. We've rebranded, we've done a new kit deal.

"We've got a major sponsor on the front of the shirt, you know. We're doing all of these things. The turnaround in 12 months is huge."

Manager Fern Burrage-Male took over in December 2023, replacing Gemma Donnelly, and believes Gwalia has the structure in place to become a top-level club.

"We've got the infrastructure behind us and a good, strong, talented squad that can then step up, compete, maintain ourselves in that league, to then push on even further into the WSL," said Burrage-Male.

"It can't be we've jumped up there and then we're straight back down the next season. We want to be able to get there and maintain that position and push on again within the next couple of years. So yeah, WSL is the ideal within five to six years."

Gwalia will be hoping the recent success of Wales will be beneficial for the nation’s only women’s club playing in England.

Rhian Wilkinson's side will face the Republic of Ireland in a two-legged tie to qualify for Euro 2025 in Switzerland, after sealing victory against Slovakia in Tuesday's second leg in Cardiff.

"Every single week, we recognise that we are the only Welsh club both in the FA Cup, but also in the English tiers of football, and we take great pride in that," Burrage-Male said.

"Qualifying for a major tournament would be huge. Huge for Wales, huge for women's football, huge for us in some degree, because I do think it would have a massive influence on football in Wales.

"Whilst we acknowledge it would be huge for the whole of Wales, it would also be massive for us as well, and hopefully, the impact and how that filters down would be fantastic."

Many players in the Wales squad that faced Slovakia had represented Gwalia at some point in their career, including current Gwalia goalkeeper Laura O’Sullivan-Jones, a fact that Julian Jenkins takes pride in.

"Ten of that squad have represented Cardiff City Ladies, our club. Jess Fishlock, Sophie Ingle, they started at our club. This club has born and birthed over 100 internationals," said Jenkins.

He added: "You will fall in love with the club if you come down and meet these women.

"It’s a really nice, family friendly atmosphere. The girls, the players, the management staff, they're really engaged. So after the game you're going to get exposure to the heroes on the pitch that you wouldn't ordinarily get in a men's game."