Notts County Ladies Football Club was a
women's football Women's football most often refers to:
* Women's association football (hannah jones ).
Women's football may also refer to:
* Women's gridiron football
* Women's Australian rules football
* Ladies' Gaelic football
* Women's rugby league
* Women's ...
club based in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
, England. Like the club's male affiliate
Notts County FC
Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...
, they played their home games at
Meadow Lane.
Notts County Ladies were created in 2014 when Lincoln Ladies were relocated from
Lincoln to Nottingham and rebranded. The club were originally formed in Lincoln in 1995 and also spent a period known as Lincoln City Ladies while affiliated to
Lincoln City.
Sincil Bank and other smaller venues staged the club's matches during their time in Lincoln. The club was
named OOH Lincoln Ladies from 2008 until 2010, due to
sponsorship from
Ray Trew
Raymond Arthur Trew (born December 1954) is a businessman and former football club chairman from Lincolnshire. He is a former board member of Lincoln City F.C., Notts County F.C., and Notts County Ladies F.C.
Trew achieved his wealth through r ...
's OOH Media PLC.
The club withdrew from the
FA WSL 1
The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...
, the top tier in the
English women's football league system, two days before the start of the
FA WSL Spring Series on 21 April 2017.
Lincoln Ladies
Lincoln Ladies FC were founded in 1995 and began playing in the East Midlands Combination League.
The club was promoted in each of the following seasons, bar one, until reaching the
FA Women's Premier League Northern Division in 2002.
This feat was achieved with the same core group of players.
The team finished as league runners-up in four successive seasons (2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10) and reached the semi-final of the
FA Women's Cup in 2007–08.
A five-year sponsorship deal with former
Lincoln City F.C. board member
Ray Trew
Raymond Arthur Trew (born December 1954) is a businessman and former football club chairman from Lincolnshire. He is a former board member of Lincoln City F.C., Notts County F.C., and Notts County Ladies F.C.
Trew achieved his wealth through r ...
in June 2008 led to the club's change of name to OOH Lincoln Ladies.
Trew had previously sponsored the club through his SportsTV company, and made available extra funds for signings such as
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
internationals
Kay Hawke
Kay Joyce Hawke (born 28 March 1983) is an English footballer, who most recently played as a goalkeeper for Lincoln Ladies in the FA WSL. During her career she has played for Blackburn Rovers, Lincoln Ladies and Ventura County Fusion in Califo ...
and
Amanda Barr
Amanda Jayne Maslin-Barr (born 2 May 1982) is an English football striker She scored ten goals in 37 appearances for the England women's national football team after making her international debut in 2001. Barr spearheaded the England attack a ...
to assist the club's promotion bid.
In November 2009 the club announced a bid to join the
FA WSL
The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...
.
If successful the club planned to divide home games between
Sincil Bank and current home,
Ashby Avenue. In 2009–10 they had taken second place in the
FA Women's Premier League Northern Division to
Liverpool LFC, after finishing second to
Sunderland WFC,
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...
and
Liverpool LFC in the three previous seasons.
On 22 March 2010 Lincoln were announced as one of the eight
FA WSL
The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...
teams for the inaugural 2011 season,
which was televised on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
.
In August 2010 the club signed
Jess Clarke and
Sophie Bradley
Sophie Elizabeth Bradley-Auckland (born 20 October 1989) is an English former international association football, football Defender (association football), defender who played for Nottingham Forest Women F.C., Nottingham Forest, Leeds United Wome ...
for their
FA WSL
The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...
campaign. In the same week
Sue Smith Sue Smith may refer to:
* Sue Smith (politician) (born 1951), member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council
*Sue Smith (footballer) (born 1979), English footballer
*Sue Smith (trainer) (born 1948), British horse trainer
*Sue Smith (writer)
Sue Smi ...
also joined from
Leeds United. Weeks before the start of the new competition, Lincoln made another major signing with the capture of
Casey Stoney from
Chelsea.
Stadia
Lincoln Ladies FC ground-shared with
Lincoln United F.C.
Lincoln United Football Club is a football club based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Ashby Avenue. Nicknamed the Whites after their home kit colours, they have played at Ashby Avenue since th ...
at
Ashby Avenue after summer 2009.
Before that the club spent three seasons playing in
Collingham, Nottinghamshire
Collingham is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. The population (including Brough) at the 2011 Census was 2,738.
Collingham is located on the banks of the River Trent on the A1133 main road, just off the A46. It is appro ...
at the Station Road ground, which became a "fortress".
In 2002–03 the club played their home games at
Sincil Bank and became the first
women's
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
club to play a full season at a professional
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
stadium.
On 7 January 2013 the club announced that they would play their fixtures for the
2013 FA WSL
The 2013 FA WSL was the third season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's Association football, football league of England. The season began on 14 April and ended on 29 September.
Arsenal were the defending champions, having won their ninth co ...
at Sincil Bank.
Supporters
Lincoln Ladies FC claimed to have had one of the largest fanbases of any
female
Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction.
A female has larger gamet ...
club in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
The
FA Women's Cup semi-final in 2008 attracted 3,000 fans to
Sincil Bank, while over 1,500 attended other high-profile home matches.
By the last two seasons in Lincoln, 2012 and 2013, average home attendances had slumped to 526 and 269 respectively.
Lincoln City Women
In 2019, Nettleham LFC rebranded to
Lincoln City Women F.C.
Lincoln City Women FC is an English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or rel ...
and became the new team affiliated with
Lincoln City F.C. They are often mistaken for Lincoln Ladies but held no connection to the original team.
Notts County Ladies
Move to Nottingham
On 26 April 2013, the club said it would become Notts County Ladies from the 2014 season onwards, but did not reveal logistics of the presumed move to Nottingham. This has not been without controversy. There was talk of creating a wholly new team in Lincoln as a consequence; in 2019, Lincoln City F.C. adopted a team in the
FA Women's National League
The FA Women's National League, formerly WFA National League and FA Women's Premier League (WPL), is a group of six football divisions run by the English Football Association. Founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, the League includ ...
. A link with a male club was necessary to meet the criteria for the new two tier FA WSL.
Angry supporters in Lincoln compared the move to the 2003
relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes
Wimbledon Football Club relocated to Milton Keynes in September 2003, 16 months after receiving permission to do so from the Football Association on the basis of a two-to-one decision in favour by an FA-appointed independent commission. The mo ...
.
Folding and relaunch of women's team
The club withdrew from the
FA WSL 1
The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...
, the top tier in the
English women's football league system, two days before the start of the
FA WSL Spring Series on 21 April 2017.
The club created a new women's team for the 2018–19 season as
Notts County Women F.C.
Notts County Women F.C. founded in May 2018, is a women's football club based in Nottingham, England. They are currently playing in the East Midlands Regional Women's Football League Premier Division for the 2022/23 season. The club is an a ...
Colours and badge
The playing colours of Notts County Ladies FC were black and white striped shirts and white shorts.
The club also used the same badge as their affiliate club.
Stadia
The rebranding to Notts County for the
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
season entailed a relocation to
Meadow Lane,
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
.
Former players
''For details of former players, see
:Notts County L.F.C. players.''
Managerial statistics
Honours
*
Women's FA Cup
The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...
: Runners-up 2014–15
*
FA WSL Cup
The FA Women's League Cup is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since the WSL's restructuring to two divisions, it has featured 23 teams. Pr ...
: Runners-up 2015
''As Lincoln Ladies F.C.'':
*
FA WSL Cup
The FA Women's League Cup is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since the WSL's restructuring to two divisions, it has featured 23 teams. Pr ...
: Runners-up 2013
*
FA Women's Premier League Northern Division Runners-up (4): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10
* Lincolnshire FA County Cup (7): 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10
See also
*
*
Women's football in England
Women's football has been played in England for over a century, sharing a common history with the men's game as the country in which the Laws of the Game were codified.
Women's football was originally very popular in the early 20th century, b ...
*
List of women's association football clubs
This is a partial list of women's association football club teams from all over the world sorted by the confederation they reside in. Only teams playing at the highest level in each country are shown; for clubs playing at lower divisions, see the ...
References
{{Notts County F.C.
Defunct women's football clubs in England
Notts County F.C.
Association football clubs established in 1995
1995 establishments in England
FA WSL 1 teams
FA Women's National League teams
2017 disestablishments in England
Association football clubs disestablished in 2017
Defunct football clubs in Nottinghamshire