Birmingham & West Midlands are to consolidate their partnership with Boldmere St Michaels by becoming as Boldmere St Michaels Women F.C.
The partnership provides Birmingham & West Midlands with much needed stability, sustainability and all-round support. Birmingham & West Midlands now go from being a single entity club, to the senior women’s side of a club that boasts a whopping sixty-seven teams!
Founded in 1998, the club began last season at the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground after moving from Castle Vale. After the initial partnership the merger is a natural progression for both teams with both teams standing to benefit from this move.
Birmingham & West Midlands compete in Women’s National League Division One Midlands in the fourth tier of women’s football. Over the past two seasons as Birmingham & West Midlands they have steadily improved, finishing third and second respectively. As Boldmere St Micheals the club will no doubt aspire to become clinch promotion into the National League’s third tier with the likes of Stoke City, Nottingham Forest and Burnley.
Helen Carver, General Manager of Birmingham & West Midlands since it was established in 1998, told us, “I wholeheartedly welcome this fantastic news! Women’s football is developing at a fast pace which is brilliant for our game and our club, however with that comes greater expectations and a need to build further resilience to ensure our club can maintain the requirements and professionalism the FA expect of us.”
Our club has always prided ourselves on our professionalism, honesty, and integrity, and a determination to progress and evolve both on and off the pitch.”
“As a single entity club, we have always achieved and that’s through sheer hard work, and thousands of volunteering hours spent developing and growing the club, as well as maintaining a community spirit and a welcoming professional approach to training and match days. As the game evolves, and to ensure our club survives and evolves with the FA, it’s absolutely vital that this name change occurred.”
First team players will have ‘free subs’; use of the brand new changing facilities at Boldmere on home match-days; free gym access at the Boldmere clubhouse; and all their matches recorded through Veo which is newly installed at the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground, for which weekly match analysis sessions will be run from.
The team will be lead by Marcus Webber and on the partnership, he said, “The successful merging of Birmingham & West Midlands and Boldmere St Michaels is a hugely positive forwards step for both clubs. Both parties have a real drive to be successful in the Women’s game, at both first team level, and youth levels. As a club, we now have a really strong platform to improve our first team, develop the players at our club, and ultimately, grow the club as a whole.”
The club hopes to retain many of its playing staff and but are on the lookout for additions to the squad, as well as their youth sides. The only confirmed exit is Ash Hargreaves, with other players potentially moving on depending on their university situation.
As of tomorrow, you’ll be able to follow them on their new social media accounts under @Boldmere_WFC on Instagram and Twitter, although it won’t switch over until Tuesday pm.
