Reading Football Club Women is an English women's football club affiliated with

Reading FC Reading Football Club ( ) is a professional football club based in Reading, Berkshire, England. The team play in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is managed by Paul Ince. Reading are nicknamed ...

. The Club plays in the

Women's Super League 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 flight of English women's football. Reading F.C. Women previously played in the

FA Women's Premier League National Division The FA Women's Premier League National Division (originally WFA National League Premier Division) was a football division in England. From 1991 until 2010, the National Division functioned as the top league in English women's football. Durin ...

after being promoted from the

FA Women's Premier League Southern Division The FA Women's National League Southern Premier Division is a league in the third level in the women's football pyramid in England, along with the Northern division. These two divisions are part of the FA Women's National League and below the ...

, which they were relegated to at the end of the 2011–12 season. They had previously won promotion to the National Division from the Southern Division in 2009–10. They gained entry to an expanded FA WSL in 2014.

History

Reading FC began an association with women's football when it affiliated with Reading Royals LFC (previously Twyford Comets) in 1988. In May 2006, Reading ended this affiliation and started their own women's team, Reading FC Women. In their first season they achieved a

Southern Region Women's Football League The Southern Region Women's Football League is at the fifth and sixth levels of the English women's football pyramid, with the seven other Regional Leagues – Eastern, London & SE, South West, West Midlands, East Midlands, North East and ...

and Cup

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

and were promoted to the

South West Combination Women's Football League The South West Combination Women's Football League, also known simply as the South West Combination, was a women's football league in England from 1998 to 2014. Until the creation of the FA Women's Super League in 2011, they sat at the third leve ...

. They followed this with an unbeaten 2007–08 League season to gain promotion to the Premier League Northern Division (in which they competed due to an overload at the Southern). After finishing sixth in the Northern Division, Reading were transferred to the Southern Division for the 2009–10 season. In 2010 they won their last four games of the season to finish runners–up to

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

and secure promotion to the

. On 3 April 2011 Reading successfully defended the Berks and Bucks County Cup trophy, cruising past Milton Keynes Dons 3–0 in the final. Their first season in the FA Women's Premier League National Division (the second highest league, following the formation of the

) saw Reading finish third. In March 2012 Reading lost top goalscorer Nikki Watts to WSL club Bristol Academy. They finished 9th in the National Division in the 2011–12 season, resulting in their relegation back to the Southern Division for 2012–13. In 2012–13 Reading FC Women won the FA Premier League Southern Division by eight points and a goal difference of 41, while both the first and reserve team retained the County Cup. Reading's top scorer in 2012–13,

Fran Kirby Francesca "Fran" Kirby (born 29 June 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Chelsea and the England national team. She began her career with hometown club Reading before moving to Chelsea in July 20 ...

, was rewarded for her campaign by being named as Player of the Season – as well as receiving a call up to play for Great Britain in the World University Games in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

, Russia. Striker Kirby surpassed the 30-goal mark this season and was also selected for an England under-23s Camp. Reading were granted a licence to play in the FA Women's Super League 2 from 2014. They won the division in the 2015 season and were promoted to 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 ...

. On 10 December 2015 it was announced that Reading would play their home games at Adams Park, the home of Wycombe Wanderers FC, for the next two seasons. Reading finished the 2017–18 season in 4th place and 5th in both 2018–19 and 2019–20, reaching the Semi-Final of the

FA Women's 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 ...

in 2018-19. The side finished 7th in the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, continuing the steady decline to 8th in 2021–22.

Management

Reading F.C. Women Director of Women's and Girls' Football and First Team Manager is former captain of Reading F.C. Women, Kelly Chambers. Chambers took over from former manager

Jayne Ludlow Jayne Louise Ludlow (born 7 January 1979) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is currently the technical director of Manchester City Girls' Academy. In 2018, she was inducted on to the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame Roll of Honour alo ...

who stepped down to manage

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. She is assisted by Head Coach Phil Cousins.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Former players

''For details of current and former players, see :Reading F.C. Women players.''

Stadium

Reading FC Women currently play at the

Madejski Stadium The Madejski Stadium (currently known as the Select Car Leasing Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a Association football, football stadium in Reading, Berkshire, Reading. It is the home of Reading F.C., Reading Football Club, who play in the E ...

(rebranded as the Select Car Leasing Stadium from 2021), having moved to it before the 2020–21 FA WSL season. Before then, they played at Rushmoor Community Stadium in

Farnborough, Hampshire Farnborough is a town in northeast Hampshire, England, part of the borough of Rushmoor and the Farnborough/Aldershot Built-up Area. Farnborough was founded in Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is ...

before moving to Adams Park in

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. The club moved there after they gained promotion to the FA WSL in 2015.

Honours

: ** Winners (1): 2007/08 *

: ** Winners (1): 2012/13 *

FA WSL 2 The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

: ** Winners (1):

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* {{FA Women's Super League Women's football clubs in England

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

Association football clubs established in 2006 Sport in Reading, Berkshire Football clubs in Reading 2006 establishments in England FA WSL 1 teams Women's Championship (England) teams FA Women's National League teams