Friday, November 10
Cheltenham Town Ladies’ Development team captain Olivia Plumpton shared her insight as the head of a female football squad, recognising the disadvantage to male teams and the importance of motivating her group.
During her earlier stages of playing football, it was clear to Plumpton that the girls set up would be at a disadvantage across all ages with the lack of support, numbers, and recognition which was discouraging.
“When I played football a couple of years back, we’d play in the league where there was a larger age range, so I could be 15 playing with 17-year-olds. We’d be playing with people much older than me.
“The age range has shrunk to two years as the maximum. Some leagues even have only one year.
“I think it shows how football is becoming more popular for girls.”
Having started out when she was seven to then put her training on pause till the age of 12, Plumpton has seen for herself the progression of women’s football and the improvements made to their opportunities to compete.
“My dad is an absolute football lover and so I started watching football again with him and I was like, you know what I was going into year seven and I actually kind of wanted to change it up a little bit.
“So I thought I should get back into football and here I am.”
One element that is inevitable and hard to go unnoticed is the significance of how the men’s teams have been treated in comparison to the women’s which is slowly but surely progressing in the women’s favour.
Not having the same level of support and celebration for playing as boys growing up has been frustrating and makes the journey of playing football growing up far tougher for girls.
Plumpton acknowledged the clear difference and their advantages.
“I also play for my college team and I see how the boys get treated in the college team compared to the girls.
“Boys get priority; if we have a match on the same day and its at home, they get priority.
“If we were using the space for a game we would get kicked off basically.
“They also get training kit, we don’t get training kit or anything like that. If we needed buses for matches, they’d also get priority for that as well so its quite sad to see.”
Staying consistent for five years now playing football in Cheltenham, Plumpton was awarded the role as head captain of the development team.
Click here to read about the reintroduction of the development team
“Just recently this season we got a new coach, recruited some new players as well. The coach knew me briefly before and then decided that I would be a good team captain.
“I think it applies a little bit of pressure only because you have to be a good role model.
“The football matches can sometimes get pretty tense and people tend to argue with the ref so you have to step up and calm the situation down.
“There’s definitely a bit of pressure but I enjoy it.”
Working well as a team can be vital to game play so maintaining those close relationships falls under Plumpton’s role as a captain.
The development team has attracted a handful of girls around the local area with the majority continuing with the team just as Plumpton has.
“Most of the team have been together for about five years now. We’ve had new players in and out, but we’ve had the main set up for quite some time now.
“We’re all quite local with the furthest player coming from Tewkesbury.”
Delivering impressive results most Sunday matches, the team have suffered a few losses now and then.
Motivating and encouraging her team to stay positive and look towards the next match, Plumpton does her part to reassure the girls.
“100% I talk with the team before my matches. We actually get into a huddle and I’ll tell them ‘girls, no matter what the score is today, you go out there and give it everything’.
“Sometimes I do become frustrated with the team but I don’t let them see that.
“I do have to be positive, and we have this little WhatsApp group and after every match I live to pop on there and I’ll say ‘well done girls, we go again next week.”
Plumpton also took it upon herself to assist within the junior levels utilising her own experience to encourage other young girls to get involved from an early age.
“I used to coach some younger years when I was at Chatham Youth and I coached like id say five to eight year olds.
“I definitely saw the numbers were around 30 each session, we had two different teams because of the amount of kids enrolled.
“There’s definitely been an improvement in numbers.”
