Burghfield announced back in February their intentions to add a women’s team to the well-established club. We caught up with Vicki Brocks, as she embarks on the brand new role of managing Burghfield Ladies. The side will play in the Development Division of the Thames Valley Counties Women’s Football League for the 2021/22 season.
Here’s everything she had to say:
“Burghfield FC have always been keen to have a ladies team, being one of the largest clubs in Berkshire having a ladies team was always on the cards and seeing so many girls already playing within the club will help the girls stay in football as they grow. I was approached by Burghfield Chairman Luke Bishop having retired from playing myself and being involved in some high profile clubs back in my playing days and also coaching my sons u8’s Team at Burghfield, Luke thought I was the best person for the Ladies team.”
“Burghfield Tournament was great for the team and the club to showcase our first ladies team at our own tournament but to also have some of the team play together for the first time. My initial thoughts on the team’s performance were not good. When I set the team up everyone came to me saying they were a forward!!
“I quickly learnt that this was not the case or in my words to the team, I have the knowledge and the skills to play each player to where I see their strengths and develop them within that position I see fit. After playing around with some of their positions, we found positions that worked well and the players were happy to adapt and that helped us only concede one goal in the whole tournament. Overall I was pleased as this gave me an insight on what I was working with.”
“Preparations for the league are going really well, the girls are committed to training twice a week so I can really dive into each of their positions and develop them to their full potential. If I am being completely honest I haven’t heard or seen any of the teams within the Development league play so for me I can’t pick out anyone in particular but I am looking forward to seeing my girls play 11 aside for the first time together as a team.”
“The biggest challenge for me is going to be the team itself, I have a lot of really great players that have never played for a team before so to be able to get the girls to understand their positions fully and be able to read the game and know what’s going to happen next or to play as a team and not solo will take some time.”
“My ambitions for myself and the club are to build women’s football up within the club to have a reserve team and a first-team so that players of younger ages can work their way up to playing for me. A truly personal goal for me would be to get the Ladies team playing to a good standard of football in a league that they can get recognised by other teams and to play to their best standard”
“We are recruiting, obviously they have to be the age of 16+ but they just need to get in contact with the club via social media and the request will come through to me.”
The TVCWFL is set to kick off on the weekend of the 5th/6th of September, be sure to keep up to date with all things Burghfield and Berkshire women’s football.
