St Helens Women's Football Club was a leading women's football club in England. The club was founded in 1976 by Chris Slater and

Liz Deighan Liz Deighan (born c. 1953, Northumberland) is a former association football player, who played for the England national women's football team, as well as clubs including Fodens WFC, Southport WFC, and St Helens W.F.C.. She won 48 England ...

, who had met at trials for the England women's national football team. It joined the Merseyside League, winning it three years running from 1978 to 1980, also winning the Merseyside Cup twice. In 1979/80, it won the

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 ...

, defeating

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

1–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. This took them into the European Clubs Cup, and the team lost in the 1980/81 final. The team then switched to the North West Women's League, winning the championship twice. It reached the final of the Women's FA Cup again in 1980/81, 1982/83, and 1986/87, but lost on each occasion. In later years, the club played in the Women's Premier League Northern Division, and the

Midland Combination Women's Football League The Midland Combination Women's Football League, also known simply as the Midland 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, that sat at the third level of ...

. It was renamed as the Garswood Saints, and under that name won the North West Women's Regional Football League in 2004/05. In 2006, there was a fire at the team's clubhouse, in Garswood, and this led the club to disband at the end of the 2005/06 season.

References

{{reflist 1976 establishments in England 2006 disestablishments in England Defunct women's football clubs in England Association football clubs established in 1976 Association football clubs disestablished in 2006 Football clubs in Merseyside Sport in St Helens, Merseyside