Impetus editor Ben Gilby spoke exclusively to TNS Women’s manager Lawrence Wilson about his side who are linked to the perennial Welsh champions, but who are based in Oswestry and play in the English women’s football pyramid.
The New Saints (TNS) Ladies play in the FA Women’s National League Division One Midlands. The club, based in Oswestry, Shropshire are partner club to TNS FC, who have won the Cymru Premier for the last eight seasons, and enjoyed regular European football.
TNS’ Ladies manager Lawrence Wilson takes up the story of how the women’s side was formed. “It all began in 2002 when the club was formed by John Parry and John Lloyd. John Parry remained involved with the club until 2011 taking the Saints to the Midlands Combination League before leaving the club. Both had their daughters playing and there were no women’s clubs in North Shropshire at the time, so created a partnership with TNS to use the name. A couple of seasons later the club merged with Shrewsbury Town Ladies, both were competing for the best players in the county and created one leading club, with this being re-named TNS Shrewsbury. This then had girls feeding directly out of the Shrewsbury Town Girls Centre of Excellence. The club then changed its name to TNS Shropshire, with Shrewsbury Town having little involvement, so the name change meant that the club was more independent. In 2014/15 there was a restructure changing the branding to The New Saints Ladies (TNS). The marketing and media side would take the forefront in the promotion of the club and developing links with other clubs and schools in the area. This would prompt the introduction to more age groups at the club adding to the youth section.”
With the Men’s side of the club being hugely successful in the Welsh league’s top flight, it was never a consideration for TNS Ladies to play in anywhere else than the English women’s pyramid system, as Wilson emphasises: “The club is based in Shropshire the club felt it was easier to play in England.”
Playing in the fourth tier of the women’s game has many challenges, but at the present time, the TNS coach identified training opportunities as one of his biggest difficulties: “We only train once a week at present time due to our pitch is constantly in use with all TNS teams, which is great to see for the whole club.” Despite pitch access issues, there are major benefits of the links with the men’s club as Wilson explains: “At the start of 2018/19 season, TNS Ladies became a part of the TNS Foundation to create a stronger relationship between the men’s and ladies section, this will hopefully develop even more over the coming years.”
With the TNS starting the new season in National League Division One Midlands positively, Wilson has high hopes for 2019/20: “We have started this season very well only losing two games so far, our aim is to finish in the top four which I believe that is where we should be finishing each season. We are also aiming to get to the second round of the FA Cup. We reached the fourth round in the 2017/18 season breaking records twice as we hadn’t gone past the second round before, so it would be marvellous to go a long way in the competition again.”
The TNS manager identifies two ways in which his club have been boosted in achieving these aims: “Since the Women’s World Cup, we have had new players come and join the club from all ages from under 12s up to the first team. I hope this keeps developing as my plan is to keep generating more girls teams for TNS Girls and Ladies section. Additionally, being on the border of Wales we do attract Welsh players to come across the border. Within our first team and our development team, we have eight Welsh players, with a couple of them having played for Wales at younger age groups.”
Wilson is firmly of the opinion that any success that the club gets has to be sustainable, and he is clear as to the best way of achieving that:
“I believe creating the right atmosphere and ethos at the club which I have tried to in bed since I took over as manager, from having all of the girls’ teams playing the same system as the first team from under 15s upwards. This way, when players and teams move up they already know what is expected and it goes hand in hand. Having this an important factor in having the girls keep producing the talent. One day these players will come through the ranks and get into the first team. But, like in any team sport having a great team spirit and morale is key as this will pull you through matches as everyone knows that there’s is a togetherness amongst everyone.”
On the whole, Wilson is positive about future of both the wider women’s game and that of The New Saints. “Women’s football is on the rise big time it’s only going to keep growing, we will start to see some very good young players coming through to the England squad of the next couple of years. The plan for TNS is to keep growing by having more youth teams at all age groups. That is very important, but the main aim for me in that period is to gain promotion to the third tier of the women’s game (FA Women’s Northern Premier). If we can achieve this, it would be massive for us, particularly in relation to growing our player pool compared to other teams.”
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Ben Gilby is the editor of Impetus and has over fifteen years experience in voluntary media officer roles within the sports of Football and Rugby Union, has appeared on BBC Radio Cornwall and BBC Radio Norfolk sports shows several times and published the book ‘The Game: Tales From A Season Travelling Around The Rugby Union Grounds of South-East England’.
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