Saddleworth 3Ds women's football team: from beginners to title contenders in just over a year!

Saddleworth 3Ds women’s team is celebrating five wins in seven games in its first-ever league campaign.

And their sights are now set on a second half of the season battle for the MW Flexi League Division Four title.

This achievement is magnified by the fact that the team has only existed for 15 months and its original squad of eight aged 30+ women was made up mostly of mums whose children play in the club’s junior teams.

Most hadn’t played before themselves.

Fast forward 14 months from the team’s first-ever kickaround and the squad comprises 20 women from Saddleworth, Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside from a diverse range of backgrounds, footballing experience and faiths, with new players welcomed the time.

Team Manager Stacey MacNaught said: "It started with a casual kickaround on a Tuesday night.

"But numbers grew quickly in the first few months.

"We started to play a few casual friendlies, took a few heavy defeats early on and then won a few.

"We joined the Flexi League with no expectations but growing confidence.

"The Flexi League is ideal because the games are not every week.

"For busy parents, this is ideal.

"It’s been such a good and well organised league.

"It’s so rewarding watching our team, with an average of 40, go out and give a real game to much younger teams or more experienced teams in some cases.

"We’re all just loving playing football.”

Men’s team coach Neil Beevor recently joined the women in a coaching capacity as they focus on the second half of the season.

Saddleworth 3Ds Club Chairman John Lees added: “It’s exciting to see the growth of the women’s team in such a short space of time and we hope to see more women in Saddleworth and Oldham getting involved.”

The Saddleworth 3Ds women’s team welcomes new players and is open to women aged 25 and over.

To find out more, please email: staceycavuk@gmail.com

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