With big derbies coming up in the North East, Durham’s future looks bright says Colin Young
Only one of two independent teams in the top two tiers of the game in England, Durham Women have received a huge boost in their bid to join the elite Super League for the first time.
Currently only three points behind leaders Birmingham in the second-flight Women’s Championship, Durham also stand ahead of moneyed promotion rivals Sunderland and Newcastle in the 11-team table.
Before the Wildcats’ visit to the 49,000-capacity Stadium of Light this Sunday, March 2, and the six-pointer with the world’s richest club at Durham’s modest Maiden Castle on March 16, news broke that could move the goalposts of the women’s game, and not only here in the North East.
A significant windfall from a Hartlepool couple who won £110 million in a EuroMillions lottery has brought a change of ownership at Durham WFC and initiated plans for the club to build a new ground within the next 18 months.
Patrick and Frances Connolly now have a 25% stake in the club after years of sponsorship and support, befriending Durham’s co-founders and directors, Lee Sanders and Dawn Hepple, after their daughter started playing.
“It’s exciting news,” says former first-team manager Sanders. “The first raft of investment will support us and help us grow the club significantly over the next two to three years, and also give us the platform to seek the next raft of investment.”
“We need to build a ground, develop a training ground and go full steam ahead looking for investment to achieve those things while retaining all the things that’s made the club special to a lot of fans. County Durham just does not have a facility to host Super League football and probably not in the Championship in the next few years.”
The announcement comes when proposals are on the table to restructure the women’s game entirely, doing away with promotion from the Championship altogether. In the wake of record-breaking TV and sponsorship deals for the WSL, a separate elite league would be created, perhaps by 2026-27, to encourage investors without the jeopardy of relegation to the lower division. At present, one team goes up from the Championship every season.
Such a move would stifle the progress of clubs in the North East in particular, a region which has been prolific in producing England internationals, just as it has in the men’s game. The players will be on show this July as the European champions defend their crown in Switzerland.
While WSL mainstays such as Chelsea and Brighton, Durham’s recent opponents in cup competitions, currently operate at a different level, the new régime at Maiden Castle can swim against the tide while allowing Durham to remain competitive with their illustrious neighbours. All the same, it is thought that spending on players will remain shrewd and steady, not slap-dash for quick success.
Durham must be one of the few cities in the world where the women’s team is more successful than the men’s. The Wildcats entered the second tier in 2014, building a core fan base, and strong links to the city and its many grassroots clubs.
Home games at Maiden Castle – where Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle used to train – are a fun day out. Like those heady days of school truancy across County Durham and Tyneside back in the 1990s, kids flock here in numbers. Keggy’s training sessions could attract 2,000 fans, which Durham match for encounters against illustrious visitors in the women’s second tier.
Spectators, decked out in the many different kits from the myriad clubs across a sprawling city boundary, include a loyal band of fans and a lone drummer. Win or lose, every player will stand for selfies and sign autographs.
The club was owned by Durham University until the summer of 2024, when Sanders and Hepple, who had been running it as directors, took shares. Now the Connollys have come on board.
“They were running a girls’ football team when I was running our juniors a few years ago,” Sanders explains. “They were struggling a bit so I offered to help out until they found their feet again. Obviously, they’ve been very fortunate, and built businesses. We received a lovely email from them saying, ‘you helped us, can we help you?’ We’ve got to know them as friends, as well as business partners, and they’ve decided to come and join us, invest and see where it takes us.”
A few miles north in Newcastle, the world’s richest club should also be strong contenders now that their Saudi backers having invested in experienced players to reverse years of neglect. How they would react to proposals for an elite closed shop is a different matter.
Sunderland, meanwhile, are currently playing catch-up after winning major silverware a decade or so ago. The financial repercussions of the men’s team’s relegation from the Premier League then led to a number of short-sighted moves.
Not affiliated to a professional men’s club, Durham are free to make their own decisions, a rarity in the women’s game.
For the first time, and with the door to the WSL still open, this season all three are chasing that one promotion spot. The Durham-Newcastle fixture on March 16 is already a sell-out while the Tyne-Wear derby a week later is being staged at St James’s Park before an expected 50,000-plus crowd.
First, though, there’s Sunderland-Durham at the Stadium of Light. After the game, Durham midfielder Mollie Lambert – who has played for all three clubs – will pick up the Women’s Player of the Year award from the North East Football Writers’ Association, which will also be honouring her counterpart, Newcastle’s Alexander Isak.
It’s a lavish do, posh dresses and black ties, which will see Mollie the seventh Durham player in succession to be crowned, following three-in-a-row Northern Ireland centurion Sarah McFadden.
Sunderland AFC Women v Durham Women, Stadium of Light, Sunday, March 2, 2pm.
Durham Women v Newcastle United WFC, Maiden Castle, Durham DH1 3SE. Sunday, March 16, 1pm. Tickets here.
Newcastle United WFC v Sunderland AFC Women, St James’s Park. Sunday, March 23, 3pm.
