Football / Bristol Rovers Women
Rovers Women ready for matchday at the Mem
It’s only one mile from the artificial grass of the main pitch at Lockleaze Sports Centre to the centre circle of the Memorial Stadium. But that short distance does not tell the story of five years of work, of training sessions three times a week, of one season being declared null and void due to Covid, of missing out on winning the league by a solitary point last season, before romping home this campaign and reaching the promised land of the National League.
Bristol Rovers Women captain Libby Bell will lift the league trophy on Sunday as the Gas Girls take on Liskeard Athletic at the Mem in front of more than 1000 fans – with tickets still for sale ahead of the 2pm kick-off.
“I’m nervous,” said Bell ahead of the Gas Girls’ Thursday evening training session, looking forward to Sunday’s match at the Mem. “I always get nervous for big games. But it’s a great chance for us to build a good fanbase for next season. Hopefully if we put on a good show, we’ll get some more people coming to Lockleaze or maybe if we’re at the Mem, wherever we are.”
is needed now More than ever
Gas Girls captain Libby Bell battles for the ball against Sherborne Town Ladies – photo: SGS College
Bell has been an ever-present member of the Gas Girls squad since 2019. Just five years ago, the gym manager was in the team as they played their first match since being reformed as an initiative of the Bristol Rovers Community Trust on a bobbly pitch in the Gloucester suburb of Abbeymead.
Since even before that first match, the Gas Girls have had charitable aims as well as sporting ones: driving more female participation and helping the women’s game grow. With promotion to the National League now secured, however, Rovers will in August be playing in the fourth tier of the women’s national pyramid – within touching distance of semi-professional teams – and they don’t want their success on the field to stop there.
Despite whispers from opposition teams, the club remains completely volunteer-run, with none of the coaching staff being paid and the players coming in to training three days week as well as giving up their whole Sunday for matchdays.
“When you look at it like that, we have done so well over the last five years to get to where we’re at,” said Bell, who grew up in a family of Rovers fans. It was her aunt who sent her the initial call-out for the open trials and she started as vice-captain ahead of her promotion to captain following Natalie Coles becoming a mum. “But going into next season, if we can have a bit of extra help, then it will push us even further on.”
South of the river, Bristol City Women are a fully professional outfit. But despite their name, Rovers Women are not an official part of the men’s club. Things could be changing, however, with the Gas Girls training at Rovers’ The Quarters training ground in Almondsbury for the first time (in the same week that the Finland men’s national team have also made use of the facilities) in the build-up to their first ever competitive game at the Memorial Stadium.
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Gas Girls manager Nathan Hallett-Young, also head of sport & recruitment at Bristol Rovers Community Trust (whose office is currently within a portable cabin in one corner of the Memorial Stadium car park) said that it has reached the time that Rovers could help their women’s side.
“We are now at a level where as a club we need to be more commercial,” said Hallett-Young. “We need to be able to sustain ourselves almost at a semi-professional football level. So any support would be brilliant. The big thing for us is making sure that we look for and achieve or gain more support that we need as a club…
“Now we’re knocking on the door of semi-pro football and we’re in the position where this has to start turning into a commercial entity, into a more elite environment. That’s what we have tried to do from a footballing perspective from day one. So that way when we get here it’s not a shock. But there needs to be more support, whether that’s from sponsors or from the club or from the trust. We just need help to continue to grow.”
Nathan Hallett-Young is head of sport and recruitment at Bristol Rovers Community Trust and co-founder and first team manager at Bristol Rovers Women’s FC – photo: SGS Bristol
Like tenacious midfielder Bell, another ever-present in the Gas Girls set-up since 2019 has been Poppy Warren. Away from the football field, Warren is a trauma and orthopaedic physio in the NHS and this season has come back from serious injury to resume her role tearing up the left side of the pitch.
“We know how hard everyone has worked, from the players to the coaches to the support staff,” said Warren, who like Bell is aged 26. “This is just the culmination of this year. So it’s nice to have that end of year recognition and a chance to celebrate with the whole squad and the fans. It means a lot to us to have that support from everyone and be able to show it off.”
So what next for Warren? “We want to try to push it as far as we can every year. We always say that. We’re striving all the time to get better. It’s about working hard over pre-season, working with the squad that we have got. See where we can go.”
Poppy Warren has been an ever-present in the Gas Girls first XI since the club was reformed in 2019 – photo: SGS College
Bell, Warren and Zoe Fielden-Stewart (an engineer who recently received her doctorate from the University of Bristol) are the trio of ever-presents from that first match in 2019 in Abbeymead. The average age of the squad has gone up from 21 to 24 in that time, but youth remains a central facet to the Gas Girls with Hallett-Young showing great faith in the youngest members of his squad who have paid his trust back to him in spades.
On Sunday, look out in particular for Helena Costa, Abi Hughes and Freya Rolfe, only just old enough to enjoy the celebratory bottles of bubbly that will no doubt be opened after the final whistle.
“This season has been relentless,” said Hallett-Young. “We ask a lot of the girls… We have achieved that big overarching goal but there is also a massive amount of joy that comes into it as well. These are small moments that don’t happen often. You don’t get a lot of these moments during your career as a footballer. It’s these moments that you’ve got to enjoy as they are few and far between.”
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Bristol Rovers Women play Liskeard Athletic at the Memorial Stadium at 2pm on Sunday. For tickets costing £5 for adults and £1 for under-18s, visit www.eticketing.co.uk/bristolrovers/EDP/Event/Index/247
Main photo: SGS College
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