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Spirits High As Table-Topping Brentford Women Return To The Gtech For Clapton Community Clash

Brentford Women return to the Gtech Community Stadium for the third time as they look to continue their unbeaten start to the season and take their winning streak to seven against Clapton Community in the LSE Division One North on Sunday.

Head coach Karleigh Osborne, who faced the press alongside Brentford Women duo Mollie Holmes and Ashley Cheatley at Jersey Road on Friday afternoon, has backed his side to put on a show. “Clapton are a really strong side who will be right up for it on Sunday with it most likely being their first time playing in a Premier League environment, but I’m confident we can put on another big performance in front of the fans,” he said.

https://twitter.com/BrentfordFCW/status/1839677554694779323

A faultless start to the campaign

Having fallen agonisingly short of promotion last season, Brentford Women have attacked the 2024-25 campaign with renewed vigour and are yet to lose a game. “It’s been a brilliant start to the season and the ladies have been fantastic,” said Osborne. “The main focus this season is promotion, we have fell short the last couple of campaigns, but I feel like we’ve learnt a lot from that, and the players came back this season with a different energy. We understand it’s going to be a long journey but if we are going to achieve anything we must continue doing the right things and working hard, and we have the capability to do that without a doubt,” he added.

Playing at the Gtech Community Stadium

Brentford Women come into this fixture on the back of a 12-1 demolition of Tilehurst Panthers in the FA Cup at their usual home ground Bedfont Sports Club, a result that saw them reach the third qualifying round of the competition. This weekend, they will walk out at the Gtech Community Stadium, playing there for the first time since March earlier this year, where they ran out 6-1 winners over Ashmount Leigh.

Captain Holmes spoke about the importance of the supporters and what a similar result at the Gtech would mean for herself and the rest of the squad. “I’m fortunate enough to have played at the Gtech previously, and I think this being my second time I’ll enjoy it even more as I know what to expect now. We get a lot of support at our home games so to have the fans watch us on the biggest stage at the Gtech is great. I’ve felt previously what a win at the Gtech can do, it can give you that extra boost that you need heading into the upcoming fixtures, so a win is certainly the main point of focus on Sunday,” she said.

Cheatley, who joined in the summer, has made quite the impact since her move and is looking forward to making her first appearance at the Premier League stadium. “This will be my first time playing at the Gtech and I’m sure it’s going to be a surreal moment,” she explained. “I joined in the summer from a team who played a couple divisions above our level but the opportunities I’ve already had as a Brentford player are just incredible.”

The striker is the team’s top scorer this season, having netted 13 goals in her first six competitive games, including a brace against Tilehurst Panthers last weekend. Her partnership up top with Chloe Logie is growing ever-threatening, which has helped the team become even more ruthless in front of goal.

The Opponents

Sunday’s opponents sit seventh in the table but come into the game in good form. Having started the season with three straight losses, they secured back-to-back wins ahead of this tie against the table-topping Bees.

Osborne’s side played out two entertaining games against Clapton last season. After a brace from Logie saw them earn a 2-2 draw away at Old Spotted Dog Ground, she got on the scoresheet again later in the season, with Sophie Troth adding another in a 2-0 win at Bedfont Sports Club.

Osborne remains confident in his side’s abilities, explaining, “We set up similar to most teams we play, because we’re just very attack minded. I feel like if we get our game right, then it’s difficult for most clubs to stop us moving forward.”

Growing the women’s game

For Cheatley and Holmes, Sunday’s game is not just a chance to win three points but also represents an opportunity to inspire the younger generation to follow in their footsteps. “Women’s football’s taken off quite a bit in recent years. I know that when I was a little girl, I would have loved to look up to players and my local team and seeing them kick on. We just want to go out and perform, and hopefully we can inspire the next generation to come and develop their football and their career at Brentford,” explained Cheatley.

Holmes added, “I think it’s all about visibility. Because, you know, as a person, boy or girl, if you can see it, you feel like you can be it. Obviously, we want to inspire people in football. Amazing. I love it, but not everyone might love it, but they might want to be something else. And it’s point of, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be a footballer.’ But if they can go and do something that typically, previously, they would think is a male sport or male-dominated. ‘I can go and play, I can go and sing, I can go and paint’ – whatever it is. It’s just having that visibility to go, ‘you know, I can do whatever I want to do, whether that’s football, whether it’s not.’”

Support from the club

Osborne spoke in glowing terms of the club’s efforts to grow the women’s game, highlighting the support they had received in terms of resources, visibility, and the men’s team as well. “The club are fully behind us, Thomas [Frank] has reached out and shown his support; these things are really important. The resources that the club are putting behind the marketing side of things, promoting these games at the Gtech and putting that awareness out has been really important. The more people that become aware of these types of events the better, not only for our players but the women’s game in general,” he explained.

Future plans

Osborne’s plans for his side this season include trophies, and lots of them. “Yeah, we’re aiming for silverware again. Without a doubt. The league is the priority. Promotion is priority. But want to better what we did in the FA Cup, because I think what we did last year was fantastic. You never know, see how far we get. We want to win trophies year in year out, and we have to keep developing, but we focus on this year for now. It’s about getting a promotion and then getting started to go again next year.”

On the prospect of taking Brentford to the Barclays Women’s Super League one day, Osborne said, “Yeah, I think it’s something that’s possible. For sure. There’s a journey that we’d have to go on. Right now we have our targets of what we want to do over the next year, two, three, five years. But I would say that as long as we keep doing what we’re trying to do, that’s something that we’d like to achieve at some point in the near future. I think it’s the right thing we should be striving for. A club like Brentford is a fantastic club to represent, and I think it’s it’s something that we should be looking for in terms of playing at the highest level.”

Osborne, who made more than 160 appearances for Brentford in a period stretching from 2005-2012, has personal experience in this regard. “No different from the men’s team. When I was here, we were in League One, and people were saying we’ll play in the Premier League one day. I don’t see why the women can’t do the same thing.”

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  • Vaibhav Joshi

    Vaibhav is a sports journalist from New Delhi, India, with a keen interest in football, cricket, and tennis, and is always willing to learn more about all other sports under the sun. Having chosen his allegiances circa 2003 aged 10 and stood by them since, his sporting loves include Manchester United, the Indian cricket team, and Andy Roddick.

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