Open age women’s football returns to Guiseley this Sunday as Guiseley Lionesses host Myra Shay Women at Guiseley School’s new artificial pitch with kick-off at 2pm and entry free for all.

The Guiseley AFC family will be looking to welcome the two new women’s teams being launched in the new season in a collaboration between Guiseley AFC and Guiseley Juniors. This will give those inspired by the success of the England Lionesses winning back-to-back Euros to watch and support women’s football in their own backyard, writes Rachel O’Connor.

The two new women’s teams will create a pathway into women’s football for the 300 girls that Guiseley Juniors club now has. The teams will be known as Guiseley Lionesses.

Wharfedale FA Secretary Rachel O’Connor said: “Women’s and girls’ football is growing rapidly in our area with clubs at Ilkley Town, Burley Trojans, Otley Town, Menston Juniors, Pool AFC, Guiseley Juniors and Horsforth St Margaret’s all having multiple teams.

“The women’s game is now growing at a rapid rate and all inspired by the successes of the England women. There have been massive changes in the women’s game at a professional level and whilst most of the England Lionesses squad could never have imagined at one stage that football could become a career for them young girls will now be able to have that dream.”

The two new women’s teams at Guiseley – a first team and a Development team – will step out for the upcoming season with the first team playing on the Guiseley AFC pitch at Nethermoor and the Development team on the new state-of-the-art pitch at Guiseley School.

The first team will be managed by Jamie Sykes, the former Eccleshill United women’s manager who has brought a number of the now disbanded Eccleshill team to Guiseley. He will be assisted by coaches Rob Woollhouse and Cameron Whalley. They will start their season in the West Riding County FA Women’s Football League Second Division with their league games commencing on 7th September.

The Development team will be managed by Will Collinson who will be assisted by Andy Craddock with Guiseley Juniors Head of Coaching Kevin Harrison as coach.

With the two new open age teams Guiseley Juniors now have 25 girls’ teams starting from the age of four. What was once a dream is now a reality with pathways into senior teams and young girls continue to be inspired by England stars such as Yorkshire’s own Beth Mead.

Following Mead and England to this Summer’s Women’s Euros in Switzerland was Jo Currie, a member of the previous women’s set up at Guiseley AFC. Now one of the BBC’s top sports journalists Currie was seen interviewing players throughout the recent Women’s Euros.

There has been a new dawn in women’s football since the time Currie played for Guiseley and since the women’s team had to disband in 2019 due to a lack of financial backing for the level they were playing at. That was when the women’s game was re-organised to a more professional level and clubs like Leeds United Women and Guiseley fell by the wayside. Now both are back, albeit at lower levels, but this is just the start of their journey.

The previous Guiseley women’s team, started by Yeadon’s Jenny Taylor, was maybe the victim of its own success having achieved a number of rapid promotions and getting within reach of the pro game.

Now a new era is being forged by a collaboration between Guiseley Juniors FC and Guiseley AFC. The junior club has been at the forefront of the growth in girls’ teams and leading the way has been Kevin Harrison who said: “The Juniors started a girls’ section 18 years ago and it now has over 300 players from 4 to 18 years. We are now looking to provide a pathway for the girls into women’s football and have been grateful for the support of Guiseley AFC and especially their Directors Chris Chadwick and Mark Lewis. The attention on women’s football has flipped on its head and we are delighted to be a part of it.”

He added: “We now start girls off at four and have a number of girls’ teams all the way through to Under-18, even before this pathway now being put in place! Girls used to have to play in boys’ teams as there were no teams for girls. Now they have their own teams and girls are now getting opportunities in football that the boys had all along.”

Harrison said: “Girls are now a third of our Junior club membership. The whole mentality towards girls’ football has now completely changed. It is the same game but for girls and women and sponsors are now seeing the value of supporting the women’s and girls’ game. The potential for the women’s game is massive.”

Delighted by the fact that the women’s first team will play on the main pitch at Nethermoor Harrison, who has been deeply involved with the Junior club for well over 20 years, said: “This is massive for them and they are really looking forward to it. We could do with more female input into running these teams as it is mostly men at the moment and we would like to see more women in coaching roles as things develop. We cannot wait to get started on this new venture.”

Guiseley AFC Director Mark Lewis has a 13 year-old daughter Isla playing in the Guiseley Juniors set up and he is keen to see women playing at Nethermoor once again. He said: “It is a shame that the previous women’s team at the club had to be disbanded but this is a new start and there is lots of talent coming through among the Juniors’ girls’ teams. The women’s teams will give them an opportunity to continue playing and hopefully some will go on to play professionally.

“I am really excited about the whole project. The pathway is there now and in time I hope that it will be very successful and the teams can continue up The Pyramid. It is really pleasing that there will be a Development team as well as the first team and it shows that with two teams the demand is there. Kevin Harrison has done a wonderful job in sorting all this out.”

Guiseley AFC manager Mark Bower, a former Bradford City player, is supportive of having a new women’s team playing at Nethermoor saying: “I think it is very important to have a

women’s team here at Guiseley, especially seeing how popular the women’s game is becoming thanks to the England Women’s success in back-to-back Euros.”

“Everyone should be welcome at all clubs and you need teams in all age groups throughout the men’s and women’s game. I welcome them back to Nethermoor and hope that they get great support.”

In the coming season the West Riding Women’s League will have seven divisions with Horsforth St Margaret’s first team playing in Division One; Burley Trojans and Guiseley Lionesses Firsts in Division Two; Ilkley Town Development in Division Three; Horsforth St Margaret’s Reserves in Division Four and Guiseley Lionesses Development in Division 5B.

Ilkley Town’s first team have been promoted into the North East Regional Women’s League Southern Division and look forward to another successful season after playing in the Women’s FA Cup for the first time last season.

Picture: Guiseley Juniors Girls’ Under-17 team which reached the West Riding County Cup final last season losing to Bradford City. Some of these girls will play in the new women’s teams.