Portsmouth Women

The history of Portsmouth Ladies commences in 1914, although the club was not officially formed until 1916. They were one of many women’s football teams active during the First World War.

On 19 March 1914 two charity games were held for the Royal Navy Disaster fund. One of which was a women’s game between Lady Artistes at the King’s Theatre and a “Local Ladies” team organised by Mr, Le Lellett of the Royal Yacht Alexandria.

The game was popular, attracting a crowd of over 5000. The Local Ladies team won 5-1 with Miss Anscombe scoring four goals. She would emerge as one of the star performers for Portsmouth Ladies FC.

Several other games were subsequently played and their popular reception lead to the official formation of the team. On 14 December 1916, the Portsmouth Evening news announced the formation of Portsmouth Ladies FC. The new team were the first Women’s football team in Hampshire.

Opponents were hard to come by for the newly formed team, but they did beat Basingstoke Ladies 11-0 in front of a crowd of over 3000 at Fratton Park.

Female opponents were sometimes so hard to come by that the team were forced to play against male teams. They played at least 14 games against male opponents between May and December of 1917. These games took place under rules designed to emphasize women as “weaker”. For example, male outfield players had their hands tied behind their backs and male goalkeepers had to keep one arm in their jersey. The Portsmouth Ladies team won 13 and drew 1 of these 14 games.

On 12 October 1918 Portsmouth Ladies took park in a Cup Competition called the Southern Championship. The deciding game played at a neutral venue in Guildford. Portsmouth Ladies won 3-2.

Very few records of Portsmouth Ladies games taking place exist during the period the FA banned Women’s teams playing on affiliated pitches. This ban was in place between 1921 and 1971.

In 1968, John Phelps, then the head of PR at the men’s club had recruited a team of hostesses. Clad in the Portsmouth blue team colours so that they stood out, the hostesses walked around the ground selling programmes and looking after fans on match days.

Given the growing interest in Women’s football, the hostesses decided they wanted to start a team. They were encouraged and supported by Mick Williams, at the time a volunteer for the Pompey Action Group, which was a supporter group that helped the club in numerous ways.

Mick Williams would prove a pivotal figure in Portsmouth Ladies history. See the notable club personnel section for more information on Williams.

The men’s club were active in helping organise fixtures in the late 1960’s, with games being advertised in the programme. With the success of the local rivals Southampton's ladies team, the focus in the late 1980’s turned to forming a high quality team in Portsmouth.

The Portsmouth Women’s team as we know it today was formed in 1987. Dave Coyle was a pivotal figure in this club’s early history, fulfilling every role short of player. See notable club personnel section for more information on Coyle.

Portsmouth Ladies retained a strong connection with the men’s club and started playing in the 1988/89 season in the Southern Regional League. The women’s game lacked the organisation and structure it does today with varied venues and opponents. Driven by Dave Coyle, the club continued to thrive, although surviving match records from these years are extremely limited.

The club achieved its first promotion in 1998 when they moved up to the South West Combination League, which is broadly equivalent to Tier 3 of the modern day.

Dave Coyle was manager during this time, and in 1999 he guided the team to beat Reading, thus winning the South West Combination League Cup.

The club continued it’s upward trajectory, and in 2002 the club was the first in Hampshire to be awarded the FA Chartered Standard Club Award for Excellence.

In 2002 Vanessa Raynbird was appointed Director of Football. Coyle thus moved upstairs and Raynbird took over team affairs.

In the 2002/3 season the team were Champions of the South West Combination and moved up to the Premier League Southern Division, which was tier 2 of the women’s game.

The team recorded regular top half finishes, but competing for the title proved difficult, as Portsmouth Ladies lacked a permanent home and the financial backing needed to complete with the top teams.

2011 saw the formation of the Women’s Super League as tier 1 of the Women’s game. This made the Premier League Southern Division that Portsmouth played in drop down to be the 3rd tier of the women’s game.

In the 2011/12 season Portsmouth Ladies gained promotion to the Premier League National division and tier 2.

For the 2013/14 season a new league was introduced at tier 2 called the Women’s Super League 2, or WSL2. Portsmouth’s bid for a place in the new WSL2 failed, and they were subsequently placed into the Southern Division tier 3.

The 2013/14 season saw live radio commentary of matches for the first time, provided by Express FM's Grassroots Football Show and later by South Coast Sports Radio.

Portsmouth Ladies FA Cup record between 1970-2000 is unknown. Their best known FA Cup run to date came in the 2013-14 season, when they progressed all the way to the quarter final. They lost to WSL leaders Notts County, 2-0. County took 72 minutes to break down a resilient Portsmouth with England International Jess Clarke scoring County’s second goal.

In the 2014/15 season Portsmouth Ladies won the Southern Division under the management of Perry Northeast. They would narrowly miss out on promotion to tier 2 after losing the playoff game against Northern League Champions Sheff Utd 1-0 in the dying seconds of the game.

With the failing health of Dave Coyle, in the summer of 2015 Pompey President Mick Williams returned to his roots and took over running the club, supported by his wife and fellow director Ann. He injected significant capital into the club.

Northeast resigned at the end of the 2015-16 season, being replaced by Craig Taylor. Taylors spell was brief, and he was succeeded by his assistant, Jay Sadler in November 2017.

Since 2018, Portsmouth Women have been featured regularly on Express FM. Host Jake Smith covers the latest Portsmouth Women news on his Football Hour show and the station has provided live commentary of several games.

In 2019 the women’s team took another step forward to fully integrate with the men’s team by adopting its branding, social media graphics and sharing marketing and ticketing collateral. Portsmouth Ladies were also rebranded to a more modern name of Portsmouth Women.

Like all teams, Portsmouth Women were affected heavily by the pandemic. They played their last game before lockdown on March 8, 2020. The 2019/20 season was ended early and declared null and void with no promotion or relegation.

The following 2020/21 season started with COVID restrictions but by November the second lockdown had started, and by March the season was also abandoned. At the time Portsmouth had won 10 of their 13 games in all competitions and sat 3rd in the table. There was to be no promotion or relegation but the results and stats from this season were not voided.

Portsmouth Women’s returned to action on April 4 to play an FA Cup tie vs Cheltenham. Portsmouth won the game but were disqualified from the competition for fielding an ineligible player.

Portsmouth Women have a rich history in the Hampshire Cup. To date they have won it 17 times. The most famous recent victory was the penalties win against fierce rivals and fully professional Southampton at Westleigh Park in the 2019/20 competition. Hannah Haughton saved 2 spot kicks in the shoot out to send a packed Westleigh park wild.

On 5 June 2023, Portsmouth FC announced that their Women's team would be turning semi-professional. Portsmouth Women had made steady progress in recent seasons under the stewardship of Jay Sadler, culminating in finishing only 7 points from clinching the Southern Premier Title in 2022/23.

The announcement would see the Women's team moving under the same owners as the men's team, The Tornante Group. Jane Eisner became the side’s new chair, while outgoing chair Eric Coleborn will remain as a director.

Also serving on the board are Georgia Eisner, Stacey Eisner, Terena Eisner, Eric Eisner, Andy Redman, Clare Martin MBE and Val Cohen.

Former directors Helen Chivers and Bill Griffiths have both been appointed as honorary vice-presidents, while Jay Sadler was to remain as Head Coach.

On 24 June 2023 Portsmouth FC announced their women's Development side would transition to an Under 23 team.

The Development team had shown a resurgence under Molly Small in the 22/23 season and claimed the FAWNL Reserve Section South West title.

It was announced that Molly would stay in charge of the side and that they would once again be competing in the FAWNL Reserve Section South West as well as the Reserve League Cup, PDFA Cup and Women's Midweek Combined Counties Cup.

The backroom staff of the Under 23 team would be Molly Small (Head Coach), Ben Evans (Assistant Coach), Luke Barron (Technical Coach) and Teagan-Christine Brown (Therapist).

On 19 January 2024 Portsmouth announced that forward Beth Lumsden was leaving to join Fully Professional Newcastle United Women. Beth had impressed in her time at Pompey with 16 goals and 9 assists during her brief 18 game spell.

The transfer of Lumsden was the first time Portsmouth Women had received a transfer fee for a player although the amount of that fee was undisclosed.

On 25 February 2024, Portsmouth Women took on fully professional Newcastle in the Semi-Final of the League Cup at St James park in front a crowd of 22,307. The teams were top of the Northern Premier Division vs top of the Southern Premier Division. Backed by 200 vocal away supporters, Portsmouth took the game to Newcastle in the first half, going close in the first 10 minutes.

Newcastle eventually won the game 2-1 with a last minute goal, but it was a proud day for all involved with both teams. The match was example of the popularity of Women's tier 3 football and a sign of how much women's football had grown in recent years.

On 14 April 2024 Portsmouth Women secured promotion to the Women's Championship by winning the Southern Premier Division title. Though Portsmouth Women had no game that day, 2nd place Hashtag United lost 2-0 to Ipswich Town. The players and staff had gathered in the Legends Lounge at Fratton Park to follow the Hashtag score line and the final whistle led to emotional celebrations. For full details on the 2023-24 title winning campaign see the relevant section in "Notable Seasons in Detail"

In June 2024, Portsmouth Women announced a transition to full time professional status following promotion to the Women's Championship.