A bit about Blackburn Rovers:
Blackburn Rovers is situated in the heart of Lancashire and is a hub for both men’s and women’s football. The women’s side was founded in 1991 but began to take off in 2002 after the turn of the century. The squad were Women’s Premier League National Division champions in 2006 and in April 2011, the club parted ways with Adam Lakeland just before their relegation from the division.
In the 2018-2019 season, the squad were successful as they won four trophies. The side won the FA Women’s National League Play-off (tier three), FA Women’s National League North (Tier two), FA Women’s National League Cup (Tier three and four) as well as the FA Lancashire Women’s Challenge Cup.
Achievements in the 23/24 Season:
Last season was a massive one for the side with many achievements being broken throughout the duration of the season. Rovers finished in 6th which was the clubs highest ever league finish in the Women’s Championship. They also achieved the most points and most goals scored for the club as they reached a record breaking season.
From the 22 matches that they played, they received 36 points after winning half of their games and scored 25 goals in the process. Rovers went on an eight game unbeaten run and were the 16th most successful club in the Women’s Football Pyramid after the season concluded.
Seven of their home matches were played at Ewood Park (Traditionally home of the Men’s side) and the attendance record was broken during Women’s Football Weekend. Over 1,500 fans witnessed Rovers win 2-1 against Southampton in March 2024.
Some notable faces from the past at Blackburn Rovers:
European Champion Lionesses, Kiera Walsh, Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone all played for rovers during their career. Kiera Walsh (who is now at Barcelona) played at Blackburn Rovers in 2014 as she featured nine times and scored on three occasions. Georgia Stanway also played for rovers and is now in Germany playing for Bayern Munich. She featured for Rovers in 2015 as she played five times and scored six goals. Finally, Ella Toone played for Rovers before making the move to Manchester United where she is currently. She played for Rovers youth between 2013-2016 and moved to their first team from 2015-2017. She played 20 times with 13 goals ending up in the net.
More Notable faces were Natasha Flint and Missy Bo Kearns. Natasha Flint is now at Tampa Bay, but she has previously played for Liverpool and more recently Celtic as well as various other clubs. She played for Blackburn Rovers between 2017-2020 and featured 66 times with 70 goals to her name. Missy Bo Kearns came to Blackburn on loan during the 2019-2020 season and featured only three times for rovers.
The future of the Women’s team:
The future of the women’s team has been up in arms in recent weeks as news outlets broke the news of many different things. The owners, Venky’s, are under investigation in India due to a Tax Dispute, which shows the club is struggling financially.
It was announced that the player budget for the Women’s Side was just £100,000 which meant that the players would get paid just £9,000 a year (paid minimum wage per hour). The side would be paying the squad £11.44 per hour for 21 years old and over on a 16 hour contract per week. Their training would be Wednesday through to Saturday and games on Sunday (depending on when the games are), meaning they only had two days for work as having £9,000 a year was not enough.
Written by Lauren White
@lozreportssports
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