A “new era” is on the horizon for recently promoted AFC Wimbledon Women
BY GINA BAGNULO
Of all of South London’s football teams, AFC Wimbledon Women has some of the most impressive stats.
Indeed, their men’s team holds the record for the longest number of unbeaten league matches in English senior football, spanning 78 league games between 2003 and 2004.
In true Wimbledon fashion, the women’s arm of the club have also experienced success. Last season, the Dons won the FA Women’s National League (FAWNL) Division One South East, the fourth tier of English women’s football, and were subsequently promoted to the league’s Southern Premier Division, the third tier of the English women’s football pyramid.
With AFC Wimbledon winning the league in addition to 18 of their 22 fixtures over the 2023-2024 season, captain Ashlee Hinks and head coach Kevin Foster spoke exclusively to the South London Press about what the team are hoping to achieve this year.
Hinks is a pioneer of women’s football and even played for Chelsea when the Blues faced Arsenal in the first-ever Women’s Super League (WSL) match in 2011. Since then, Hinks has played for Crystal Palace and Millwall Lionesses and even had a short spell in Iceland representing Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaraa.
On her Wimbledon captaincy she said, “I’m really excited to lead the team into a new era in tier three now. It’s a huge step up for the club and i’m just excited to lead with the experience that i’ve got and hopefully push us on to that next step as well.”
Since her WSL debut thirteen years ago, Hinks has witnessed the profound growth of the women’s game and expressed her views on its rapid development.
“It’s just completely blown up. Even at the beginning of the super league, I don’t think anyone could have foreseen where the game is at now, I think it’s absolutely propelled to new levels. I think it’s long overdue and it’s just amazing to see that now, young girls playing football for fun as a hobby know that if they want to pursue it as a career, the option is there to do that.”
With more attention on the women’s game than ever before, calls have been made to fully professionalise the Championship after the same was done for the WSL last year. As this continues further down the women’s football pyramid, the FAWNL could become fully professionalised sooner rather than later.
“I think it’s probably a matter of time,” said Hinks on this possible eventuality.
“Tier three now is essentially what the Championship was a few years ago in terms of investment and quality of player. Because the investment is growing in the top leagues, obviously it filters down throughout the leagues, and it’s a huge knock-on effect.”
AFC Wimbledon will be taking on Lewes FC in their first match of the season on Sunday. Lewes were a team relegated to the FAWNL after losing out to Crystal Palace in the Championship, a side who were then promoted to the WSL for the first time in their history. Hinks believes that facing a team that was two tiers higher than Wimbledon last season is an exciting start to playing in the FAWNL.
“I think personally I couldn’t have asked for a more exciting first fixture”, commented Hinks on the Dons’ FAWNL debut, going on to say, “Their last game was against a team that’s now been playing in the Super League so it gives you a real idea as to the standard of the league that we’re now in.”
Kevin Foster coached the Dons to glory last season and has since fortified his club by taking on several new signings for the 2024-2025 season.
As the summer transfer window continues, Foster spoke about new additions to the club,
“I think we just looked at bringing in certain players in certain positions but we looked at characters and we’ve always had good characters in the club. You don’t get promoted without having good characters in the club.
“We looked at what we feel will help us push onto the next level so, we brought on people that have got a lot of experience, people that have played in the game, understand the level and then we’ve also brought in a couple of younger players that we feel that can learn off of them but are really exciting talents.”
Similarly, Foster highlighted the importance of being promoted in attracting attention to youth players in AFC Wimbledon’s academy and opening opportunities for them within the senior team, the Championship and the WSL.
“I’ve spent quite a bit of time with the under 16’s group before we were in the pre-season and it’s a really strong group,” Foster added
“We want the local community girls pushing on and playing for the women’s team so we have plans in the future where those 16’s and 15’s coming through will then become the 18’s to 21’s reserve side and hopefully we’ll see more players being able to progress for us or even further to be honest. That’s what we want, to be able to push players to their highest level.”
PICTURE: EMILY TOPPING