Wivi team up with Saltdean as young managers seek to inject fresh life into women’s game

Wivi have called it a day. After withdrawing from the South East Counties league midway through last season through a lack of numbers, Haywards Heath and Wivelsfield have decided not to risk re-forming – but their spirit will live on at the heart of a brand new club, Saltdean United Ladies.

Champions Chichester benefit from Greenfield development

Chichester City clinched promotion – and the title – in their penultimate game, but they had led the way all season (Photo: Caroline Henry-Evans)

When Matt Wright shocked Chichester City two years ago by revealing he was standing down as manager he said his successor would prove an even better boss and would take his beloved team into the FAW Premier League Southern the following season.

‘You can’t see it in the results but we’ve got better’

They said they wanted to take on the boys to improve their individual games – and they weren’t afraid of losing (at least, not as much as some of them feared the physical encounters).

So how do the girls of Crawley Wasps’ Under-15 side feel after a season of pitting their skills, strength – and wits – against their male counterparts in the Mid Sussex Youth and Minor League?

Golden girls’ gamble: switch to boys’ football ‘a success’ – but at a price

The steep learning curve has brought benefits and setbacks for Crawley Wasps’ girls (Photo: Dave Burt)

“We have to learn to lose.”

When Amy Perry put Crawley Wasps Under-15s ahead in their first competitive match against a boys’ team, few could have imagined that seven months – and 17 games – on, the talented, all-conquering girls team who had previously swept all before them would end their trail-blazing season without a win, having conceded 193 goals and scored just five – two of them on that opening day.

I went down to Brighton and all I got was a bog-standard e-mail – Keith Boanas on the job he never got

Former Charlton Athletic and Estonia boss Keith Boanas talks to Sent Her Forward of his Brighton experience and his early impressions of WSL 2 – and he’s not very happy

Keith Boanas’ first encounter with Brighton since his job interview was a 2-1 defeat for his new club, Watford

One of women’s football’s most highly regarded managers returned this year from his eastern European odyssey to a league that didn’t even exist when he last managed in this country – and yesterday he took his new team to play the club he could well have been managing instead.

Chichester invest in the élite to join the élite with south-coast academy

Football is already taught at Chichester College but the academy will provide top facilities for elite-level players (Photo: Dave Daniel, Chichester College)

High-flying Chichester City may be tantalisingly close to the Premier League, but they are building for the future, too, launching a girls’ football academy that is likely to boost their status as one of the top clubs in southern England.

I had a few weeks off from football, but baby, look at me now!

Sent Her Forward exclusive

Worthing’s Steph Carter and Wales international Sarah Wiltshire both returned to football within weeks of giving birth (Photos: Worthing LFC/Sarah Wiltshire)

Less than three months ago Worthing defender Steph Carter was having her first baby and Yeovil Town striker Sarah Wiltshire was preparing for a similar event which at the time was still a couple of months away.