“It has never phased me, we just have to contain the players in our own, new, positive bubble.”
Cheltenham Town Women were written off at the start of the 2024/25 season. A massive overhaul in players and staff meant a new assistant manager and a new analyst joining Tom Davies’ back room staff, as well as 12 summer signings, meant the team were relegation favourites before the season even started.
“If you look at our facilities and our budget compared to others in the league, it is a lot lot lower and bottom end. Our drive and ambition is a lot better than that, and our quality shows that. For me, we were never in danger.
“This time last year, we didn’t have training kit at that point for players, you know, and the things that we’re able to provide the playing group now, which is, you know, a huge jump and a huge leap in terms of where we were at as a club.”
Regular starters including goalkeeper Aimee Watson and striker Phoebie Poole were among those to leave Cheltenham before the start of the season, and many of the players brought in by Davies had never played Tier 3 football before, but that was always the plan.
“We lost a lot of players for various reasons, but only three or four were actually regular starters. We still had our leadership team in place. There are other teams in the league with Championship players stepping down into the division, but with our budget it was always a case of who can we bring up.
“The players we recruited, we gave them a long pre-season, we brought them together, we got them fit, which is why we got the results early on. And then we spent the rest of time then developing everybody, making sure that everyone was connected and and I think what, what that issued, was a group that became very social towards each other and connected off the pitch.”
The season started off in great style for the Robinesses beating Plymouth Argyle and MK Dons 4-0 and 5-0 respectively and had the chance to go top of the league on Matchday Three but didn’t win again until November.
However the 2-0 victory away to Plymouth was the catalyst for survial, Davies believes. “Going into that game we were coming off the back of a difficult social moment, and we were in a difficult patch coupled with a few cup wins.
“It was a strange time, but we went down there and everyone put their bodies on the line for that performance. I think that one really put the statement down for us to go now we could focus on these cup games.
“Then we went and achieved history, because we had that safety net in terms of the league, knowing that, you know, things weren’t going to change around us whilst we’re in cup action.”
After that Plymouth victory, Cheltenham went on to pick up crucial wins against MK Dons, Billericay Town, AFC Wimbledon and Lewes FC. The wins leveled the clubs record for the most wins in a season with seven, as well as conceded the least amount of the goals the club has in a Tier Three season, conceding only 47 goals.
The majority of Cheltenham’s success came in the cup competitions, breaking history three times. The first came in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup, where Davies’ side beat Yeovil Town, Moneyfields and Norwich to secure their place in the Fourth Round of the competition for the first time.
FULL TIME: HISTORY MAKERS. Thanks to Una Lue’s brilliant brace we have reached the FOURTH ROUND OF THE @AdobeWFACup for the FIRST TIME EVER….
— Cheltenham Town Women FC (@CTWomenFC) December 8, 2024
WHAT A TEAM. WHAT A GROUP. 🤩🤩🤩
🔴CTWFC 2-1 Norwich🟡#CTWFC #FACup pic.twitter.com/XsEmFNiNjG
The FA Women’s National League Plate also proved to be highly successful for the Robinesses, making it to the final of the tournament.
A brilliant, late, come-back against Stockport County in the quarter-final and a 1-0 win over Southampton’s U21 in the semi-final with a 90th minute penalty save from Carys Pugh-Jones set up a showpiece against AFC Bournemouth.
Another final two days later followed against Bristol City U21 in the Gloucestershire FA County Cup.
Despite losing both finals, Davies was still immensley proud of the run his team put together. “In terms of a club, we are still a bit behind. But to have made to two finals, no one predicted that and we weren’t expecting to have had such a good run, but it helped us get to where we are now in a great social environment.”
Ahead of next season, Cheltenham will be looking to build on their success, and hopefully lift some silverware as well as being able to be competitive in their fourth season in Tier Three.
