By Hannah Neal (16/9/23)
Above: Middlesbrough Women celebrate Beth Guy’s equaliser against Hull City. Photo: Matthew Appleby/Impetus
This weekend, almost four months on from the integration of Middlesbrough Women into the men’s club, Boro Women will play at the Riverside Stadium for the very first time when they take on Stockport County in the tier four FAWNL Division One North.
Michael (Mick) Mulhern, the newly appointed Middlesbrough Women’s manager, has an incredible 15 years of experience in the women’s game coaching Sunderland Ladies, taking them to an FA Cup final and promotion to the WSL in 2014. Mulhern has been a helping hand in the careers of many successful players such as Lionesses Beth Mead, Jill Scott and Lucy Bronze, who recently won the Euros in the summer of 2022, changing the pathway of women’s football forever.
Middlesbrough’s 2023/24 National League season kicked off on the 20th August with a 0-0 draw against Norton and Stockton Ancients, followed by a 4-1 loss against Hull City and two 1-0 wins over Durham Cestria and Leeds United respectively.
Ahead of their first game at the Riverside on Sunday, I had the privilege to speak to Michael Mulhern.
Many women’s teams are playing in their men’s team’s stadiums, especially in the WSL and the Championship, so for Boro to be playing at the Riverside Stadium – a place so famous on Teesside – shows the club’s dedication to the women’s game, especially at Tier 4 football. ‘’It’s massive for women’s football, something that’s been growing over the recent years where it’s become almost the norm to play at the club’’.
Many players in Mulhern’s side are local girls who have grown up as fans in the crowd, so being able to play for the team they grew up supporting in that very stadium is rather special. A big occasion like this could easily affect a player’s mindset so to prevent that, the team visited the stadium prior to the game to ‘’feel the atmosphere with nobody in’’ and ‘’get an idea of what it’s like’’ so the stadium feels familiar – ‘’I’ve done that before at other clubs I’ve been in, women’s and men’s. It certainly helps, so hopefully it will help on Sunday.’’ Mulhern claimed.
Above: Lauren Robson returns to Middlesbrough after a successful season with Newcastle United. Photo: Matthew Appleby/Impetus
Mulhern’s success with Sunderland has made him a well-rounded coach, working with the likes of Jordan Nobbs, Beth Mead, and Lucy Bronze – all northern girls who had to travel to progress their footballing careers.
Middlesbrough FC are showing Teesside what they have available, right here. Girls in the area no longer need to go elsewhere to follow their dreams and having a coach that has produced eight successful lionesses running the place… well it doesn’t get much better than that, does it?
He has done it all before with Sunderland, over fifteen years, a process that includes a little bit of failure, reflection, and improvement. Mulhern stated that after a successful inaugural year in the National League, ‘’fourteen players were scouted to go to America for their education’’ which forced Boro’s boss to turn to other options to select players, such as the Academy.
‘’The first thing I did here was create links to the ETC (Emerging Talent Centre) to put that in place straight away, so we are growing our own’’. Not only does he want the club to have Teesside girls, but Mulhern also wants ‘’to be scouting the girls that are from Durham, Newcastle and Sunderland,’’ the way he did during his time with the latter. He claims that Middlesbrough will have ‘’that same sort of net.”
Working for the FA as a talent scout, Mulhern had a ‘’good idea of the talent pool in the country’’ and coming in as Middlesbrough manager he stated he ‘’didn’t have to think about who I’d bring in, I knew all the players’’. He mentioned questioning whether getting those players was realistic and that some players were still out of his grasp but – ‘’moving forward they are target as we develop’.”
Since becoming head coach, Mulhern has signed twelve players, including two from the talent club, creating a whole new team. Six of those players, have joined Boro after their successful season winning the league title with Newcastle United and I think this really shows the influence Michael Mulhern has and proving he has brought that ‘’same net’’ with him.
Above: Middlesbrough’s Ella Baker – one of the two players who signed from the Talent Club. Photo: Matthew Appleby/Impetus
Once again, the part he played in so many players who are now household names should not be overlooked, and it was likely a selling point for the new signings to come to Middlesbrough.
With that in mind, Mulhern says he has ‘’a couple of good young ones here who I’ve been working with over the last three to four months and there’s a potential future for them with England,” but also mentioned ‘’there are girls out there now who are playing junior football and we don’t know who they are yet.”
Mulhern says the proudest moments in his career are ‘’when players represent their country, it’s always been a proud moment to watch them play for England.”
When the Lionesses won the European Championships last year, Mulhern said ‘’I was sitting there watching thinking of those players I’ve worked with – some were under 23s and I was proud to have been their England coach working with those players – but it was the ones I’ve worked with from a younger age and seeing them get success.”
I think it is safe to say that we haven’t seen the last of the Lionesses produced by Michael Mulhern, I am truly excited to see what he brings to Middlesbrough. Boro Women take the stage under the Riverside Lights on Sunday at 2pm, in front of what’s due to be their largest attendance yet.
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