TRAFFORD LADIES FC

Women’s football has been played in the Trafford area for over a century. In fact, the earliest known reported game in the area occurred in 1895. Many significant games and teams have played in Trafford over the years and we’ve had several prominent clubs. One of these from the 1990s and 2000s was Trafford Ladies Football Club.

The match programme shown here was for a game played between Trafford and Manchester City in 2000. Back then both teams were in the North West Women’s Regional Football League Premier Division and games between the clubs were often seen as grudge matches along the lines of a football derby.

Manchester City’s women’s team was established in 1988 and actually played in Urmston for a few seasons in the 2000s. Trafford – which started life as Sale United – was very much perceived as the club which represented the borough. Founded in 1990 by Elaine Morse, Trafford joined the regional league in September of the same year.

In 1992, the club changed its name to ‘Trafford Ladies’ and at the season’s end they won promotion to the Third Division of the highly competitive Regional League. Four years later Trafford beat Haslingden to win the Divisional Cup and, in 1997, they were champions of the Third Division.

Further success came in 1997–98, when Trafford achieved back-to-back promotions. This time, they were runners-up to Manchester City in the Second Division. A restructure of the league structure saw Trafford play the 1998–99 season in the North West Women’s Premier Division and they ended that season in a respectable third place.

Regionally, the club was making waves. Around this time midfielder Angela Willoughby was called up to the England under-18 Squad, following in the footsteps of Kate Massey.

Fay Abrehart was a member of the Trafford team for many years and remembers that the club had a great community spirit: ‘I think we were successful because we stuck together as a group for many years. We loved playing together and we enjoyed ourselves. We worked hard for each other and we were quite successful.’

The club went through a few name changes and faded in later years, but for over twenty–five years it represented the Trafford-area well. Fay: ‘I made a lot of lifelong friendships through playing for Trafford. It taught me a lot about life and gave me skills that have helped shape me.’

Today Fay continues to participate in the sport and represents England as a Walking Football over-40s International.