Moneyfields Women boss Karl Watson refusing to settle for consolidation after third promotion since club were formed in 2017

Moneyfields boss Karl Watson is refusing to settle for consolation as he plots his side’s continued progress up the women’s football pyramid.
Moneyfields celebrate their Southern Regional League Premier Division title win at Woodley. Picture: Dave Bodymore.Moneyfields celebrate their Southern Regional League Premier Division title win at Woodley. Picture: Dave Bodymore.
Moneyfields celebrate their Southern Regional League Premier Division title win at Woodley. Picture: Dave Bodymore.

Moneys clinched the Southern Region Premier Division title with a 6-0 romp at lowly Woodley, the day before the manager’s 48th birthday.

Kim Whitcombe took her seasonal tally to 16 in 17 games with a hat-trick, with Kayleigh Tonks, Ellie Bloomfield and Sheree Bell-Jack completing the half-dozen haul.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Moneys ended up winning 14 of their 16 league games, scoring 72 goals and conceding just five.

Moneyfields celebrate their Southern Regional League Premier Division title win at Woodley with manager Karl Watson, whose 48th birthday was the following day. Picture: Dave Bodymore.Moneyfields celebrate their Southern Regional League Premier Division title win at Woodley with manager Karl Watson, whose 48th birthday was the following day. Picture: Dave Bodymore.
Moneyfields celebrate their Southern Regional League Premier Division title win at Woodley with manager Karl Watson, whose 48th birthday was the following day. Picture: Dave Bodymore.

It was the club’s third promotion since being formed in 2017 and takes them into the fourth tier - the Southern League Division 1 South West.

Remarkably, they have only ever lost one league game - to Southampton FC in a Hampshire League fixture in May 2018!

The top memory of their latest promotion was the crucial 2-1 win at title rivals Abingdon United in February. A goal down at the interval, a Whitcombe double silenced the hosts’ celebrations.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘We could hear Abingdon at half-time playing music and having a bit of a party. They only really needed a draw,’ recalled Watson. ‘To turn it around and see their faces drop was the highlight of the season so far.

‘They’ve got a partisan crowd, it’s a raucous place to go. It was horrible and wet, more of a fight than a game of football - as games often are when they’re that important.’

For Watson, the title-winning campaign follows on from what he calls the ‘sin’ of being overlooked by the FA for promotion last summer.

Despite winning all their games over the two pandemic-wrecked seasons, Moneys were furious to see AFC Bournemouth handed promotion last summer instead.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘The whole thing stank,’ Watson recalled. ‘We’re knocking down (at Moneyfields) a better ground than Bournemouth play at (in Ringwood).

‘Nobody in football could fathom out how Bournemouth could be promoted instead of us. It was the FA choosing a more marketable brand.

QPR, who were playing at the same level as us, were promoted (in 2021) after finishing fourth in their league.

‘It stank to high heaven. We lost five players as a result and the secretary quit in protest.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘I thought very seriously about giving it up. It was hard to get motivated - it was getting close to Christmas before I was enjoying it again.

‘I’ve been very lucky. Because I’ve been in women’s football a long time, I was able to sign players who I didn’t believe I could get.’

Kirsty Pearce, who had captained Reading in the Women’s Super League, was recruited alongside ex-Pompey player Charley Wilson.

Defender Tash Angel - who has been ‘phenomenal’ according to Watson - and ex-Southampton striker Emma Pinner, ‘an absolute worldie of a centre forward’, were also brought in.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Moneys will be up against the likes of Exeter, Swindon, Southampton Women - not the ‘moneybags’ team who play under the Southampton FC umbrella - and possibly Bournemouth next season.

But Watson insists: ‘The intention will be to try and win the league.

‘We’re under no illusions that it’s going to be easy, it will be a fierce league.

‘But with the quality of the players we have got, and the quality of the players we’ve got coming in - there’s a few good players coming in.’

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Before then, though, Moneyfields could have two cup finals coming up in the next few weeks.

They are already through to the Portsmouth FA Senior Cup final, where they play Pompey at Baffins Milton Rovers on April 7.

They also face lower tier Bournemouth Sports in the semi-final of the Southern Region League Cup this Sunday.

Moneys won the Southern League Supplementary Cup last year once the third national lockdown had ended. Despite playing all six ties away from home, they ended up lifting the silverware with another victory at Abington United.