Exeter City Women 2019/20 Season

[Dannyred]

How much have you actually watched recently of both male and female right through the levels to draw relative comparisons? My eldest plays girls/ladies football (she's 16) and is part of the Devon FA development squad so I've been fortunate enough to see the depth of the girls game and ability last season watching Crediton. I'm now watching the best the county has to offer through Chloe being with Devon. I've watched the Devon squad play against a local boys club side. I've watched her play for a Devon Division 1 League side with Cullompton. The womens game is years behind the girls game in standards and is nowhere near the mens standard. This is why I keep telling you you have to bide your time for a bit. You wouldn't try selling a Hyundai in a Jaguar garage and that is what your trying to do by giving it large about the womens game playing in large stadia. Apart from international level, it's not ready for it......… yet.

Yes I totally agree about the exceptional young talent coming through in the girls game but I also get to see the amazing talent in the WSL often plus the championship with family friends playing.

You will be extremely proud to see your daughter reach her standard which is amazing but the opportunities are not there for her like they are for boys, Do you not think if she played for Exeter City women’s team that she should have an equal right to play at SJP?

I know first hand the work going on in women’s football at the top and the speed in which it’s moving forward, there is also a need to address things in primary schools about girls playing football on an equal pitch with the same opportunities.

As a long time fan of the club I hope they will move the women’s team into SJP sooner than later.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Yes I am obviously proud of her achievement but if she was at City no I wouldn't expect her to play at SJP. It would be nice occasionally but it wouldn't be an expectation. ECFC revolves around the needs and demands of the first team. Everything below it is as a by product of it. If that means certain teams do not get the opportunity to play at St James Park then so be it. It would be nice for the younger youth teams to play there, but the don't. The u/18s only play there because if the FA Cup regulations. So what makes the women's team that isn't actually part of Exeter City FC Ltd different? Nothing. They are probably further down the food chain than the youth teams because they are at least part of the future of the first team.

 

[DB9]

Congrats to your daughter Ian, You must be very proud and sounds like she's getting the coaching too and totally agree with the your views regarding the women's game and playing at SJP

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Congrats to your daughter Ian, You must be very proud and sounds like she's getting the coaching too and totally agree with the your views regarding the women's game and playing at SJP

She would be if she was fit. She's currently out injured for three months with a spinal injury picked up doing her better sport, athletics. At the moment she is getting some very good rehab. Hopefully she will be fit by Christmas. But yes, if she was fit she would be getting some very good coaching from Dave Leonard (ex Tiverton player that played with Phil Everett, Kevin Smith and co).

 

[DB9]

She would be if she was fit. She's currently out injured for three months with a spinal injury picked up doing her better sport, athletics. At the moment she is getting some very good rehab. Hopefully she will be fit by Christmas. But yes, if she was fit she would be getting some very good coaching from Dave Leonard (ex Tiverton player that played with Phil Everett, Kevin Smith and co).

Which way is she likely to go, Football or Athletics? Hope she recovers well too

 

[Dannyred]

Yes I am obviously proud of her achievement but if she was at City no I wouldn't expect her to play at SJP. It would be nice occasionally but it wouldn't be an expectation. ECFC revolves around the needs and demands of the first team. Everything below it is as a by product of it. If that means certain teams do not get the opportunity to play at St James Park then so be it. It would be nice for the younger youth teams to play there, but the don't. The u/18s only play there because if the FA Cup regulations. So what makes the women's team that isn't actually part of Exeter City FC Ltd different? Nothing. They are probably further down the food chain than the youth teams because they are at least part of the future of the first team.

So if you had a boy you would expect him to play at SJP but because you have a girl she shouldn’t because she has is a Girl.

The club need to own the women’s team, it’s embarrassing that they still don’t yet however if you see the pic of the men & women teams together you would think they do.

 

[Hants_red]

What I'd like to see now is someone involved with Exeter's Womens team to produce a roadmap of where they want to be next season, 5 years time, 10 years time. Maybe the Trust and the CCT with the Women's team could produce such a document, which we as Exeter supporters could read with a view to supporting that journey.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

So if you had a boy you would expect him to play at SJP but because you have a girl she shouldn’t because she has is a Girl.

The club need to own the women’s team, it’s embarrassing that they still don’t yet however if you see the pic of the men & women teams together you would think they do.

No I don't. As I said, it would be nice if it could be accommodated but not an expectation. I played against City u/17s back in the day (we were the only side to inflict defeat on them over those two seasons) and we played at The Cat and Fiddle.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

You'll know far more about girls/women's football than me but I think what is happening with the profile of women's football is changing massively and very quickly at a far quicker rate than the quality of the football. New sponsors, higher profile, more TV coverage etc. People are thinking they would actually rather have a Hyundai than Jaguar in some circumstances. Old male football fans like me will look at a 'top' women's game and say "But they're barely non-league standard. Come back in a few years and I might me interested" but huge parts of the population just don''t look at it that way. We're the ones being 'left behind'.

There is a lot more to women's football than just the quality of the football (compared to the men's game) and once I got my head around that it starts to make a lot more sense. Of course the quality definitely is improving all the time too, which helps.

The game as whole takes some getting used to as it is very different. I'm still acclimatising to it now. It's a lot slower (it makes 90s Italian football look like the Premier League now on fast forward) and a lot less physical. That probably suits the laws of the game better than men's football. As I said early, I watched the Devon Girls development squad get hammered by Marldon u16s. It was the difference ability that beat them, it was pace and strength. Chloe is by far the quickest in the squad but she couldn't keep pace with half of the opposition. The girls that like to put a tackle in were struggling to hold their own in a challenge. Yet show the opposition a trick or a quick bit of passing and they could hold their own.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Which way is she likely to go, Football or Athletics? Hope she recovers well too

Athletics. She is a national standard long jumper and has competed at the last two national schools finals. Maybe if she had started playing football earlier it might be different but she only started playing competively last season.