Inside the Lower Leagues: Two teams trying to rebuild in new homes
On the opening day of the new FA WNL North season, Halifax FC and Rugby Borough went head-to-head, two teams 12 months into a new era, but at the opposite ends of the scales...
“They don’t need any help, ref” shouts Halifax FC head coach Rob Mitchell in jest as the referee awards their opening day opposition a free-kick which leads to the opening goal of the 2024-25 FA Women’s National League North season.
Within the sarcasm though there is an air of sincerity. It would be the first of 10 goals to go past a Halifax FC team on the day which included several teenagers, a squad with only three substitutes, and no names on the back of the shirts.
And this was not a now full-time Nottingham Forest or even a Newcastle United who have been promoted to the Barclays Women’s Championship, but Rugby Borough, another club still growing into a new identity.
Just over 12 months ago, these two clubs would have been known as Brighouse FC and Coventry United respectively, the latter relegated from the second division and cutting away from its long-term home to take up sanctuary 11 miles up the road, while Brighouse became Halifax, yet spent the 2023-24 season searching for a permanent home, both metaphorically and literally.
Last Sunday, after a solid first season which saw them avoid relegation by a convincing distance, they played in their permanent new home at Bradford’s Horsfall Stadium, nine miles away from Halifax.
Mitchell’s team has been decimated. Some fellow Tier 3 sides have taken his best players, while the lure of bigger names such as Huddersfield Town and Leeds United have even seen some drop down a level to Tier 4.
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Even within one sole division and between two independent clubs, the disparity on the day is alarming, as Rugby bag their final three more goals in the last five minutes, egged on by a bench who know 10 will put them top of the league after Burnley’s 9-0 win over Hull City, and a young Halifax side thrown together on a shoestring budget can do little about it.
“There’s a massive disparity between top and bottom at the minute,” admits Mitchell after the game. “Their budget is huge, mine is £10,000, it’s expenses only, so it’s really tough.
“You can tell they train four times a week, they want to bounce back up. You see Burnley score nine and Hull aren’t even a bad team, so for them to score nine is ridiculous.”
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