SYWF spoke to SJR Worksop Captain, Charlotte Finch about her journey into the game, her dramatic return to SJR and the overall growth of the women’s game.
So Charlotte, let’s kick things off with your first memories of football and a gist of how you got to where you are today?
“So I was 8 years old when I first started with Moorends Hornets boys team. First game, I scored, got Man of the Match, (because that’s what it was called back then) and I’ll never forget that game. Then, from what my parents say, I just fell in love with it, but back then there weren’t really many women’s teams or girls teams at all.
“The only real big setup at that time was Doncaster Belles Juniors so I got put with them. I was with them for a few seasons up until my late teens but you get to an age where you have to think ‘is football going to be a career or not?’ And it was never going to be a career for me back then.
“So then you obviously get into work, you start hanging out with friends, get a social life, a car etc, and football just takes a back seat.
“I still played but not as serious or as full time as I say that I probably am now. Eventually I got back into it and played for the likes of Rotherham, Doncaster Belles, God everywhere!
“I then joined Worksop just because I knew some of the girls in the team. You’re talking about four or five years ago and I remember we were getting battered every game.
“We had an FA Cup game with Lincoln and we lost 6-1. Nothing was clicking, even the kits, we just got the old men’s shirts.
“I left Worksop because I moved up to Derbyshire, which is where I live now, and I joined Buxton Ladies and then Buxton Juniors.
“Honestly, if it wasn’t for Buxton Juniors, I’m not sure I’d still be playing football. You get to a certain point and you think, ‘Am I enjoying it anymore?’ You question what you’re doing, and I had about half a season with them and the girls in the squad itself, the coaches, the season we had, it just made me fall back in love with football again.
“Eventually, it led to Lee [Scott] calling me and having the conversation of ‘Do you want to come to Worksop?’
“I had to really think about it because obviously Buxton Juniors were such a good squad, we’d just won the league undefeated and it was like ‘do I want to leave something that I’ve got good here to go to Worksop?’ But after 10 minutes of the conversation between myself, Lee and [Andrew] Guest, I was sold.”
What was it about that phone call that convinced you to rejoin the club?
“You can tell they really value how important the women’s game is. England winning the Euros shifted the perspective for a lot of people and opened their eyes to if we had a really good women’s team, we could gain a lot.
“But back to Worksop, from the conversations with Guest, the women’s team for Worksop is their highest-ranked team, so in a way we’re almost the trailblazers, even showing the men how it’s supposed to be done.
“I know Lee values the women’s game a lot and I appreciate that because I’ve met coaches over my time that say they’re advocates for women’s football, but really all they’re about is themselves and getting their names out there rather than the actual women’s game and the women’s team.”
How different is it to your first spell there?
“The biggest difference is the standard of coaching. No offence to the guy who was doing it before but I think it was just sort of part-time volunteering whereas Lee is a lot more of a serious coach.
“He’s done his UEFA license and football is his life.
“Also the talent of the girls, and again this is no harm to any of the girls back then because they’re a great set of girls, but I think the squad of girls that we have now is incomparable to what we had back then.”
SJR were promoted to the East Midlands Women’s Regional Football League Premier Division (Tier 5) at the end of last season after the winning the League and won their first two games of the season. However after that lost each of their next 7 games and were in a relegation fight.
When we spoke to Andrew he said this season during the bad run he got comments from some of the players that it felt like the team could almost go under, it was that bad. Did you get that feeling as well?
“I didn’t think it was ever going to fold. I knew there were some changes that had to be made and those changes were made. I think if we’d have carried on as we were, I think we’d have probably been in a similar situation to Nottingham Trent who got relegated.
“We have the people and the girls who care about this team enough to not let us fold, but would we have been in the position we are now? Probably not.
“Sometimes to make changes, you have to be the bad guy but I’ve been around the block. Sometimes you have to be the story of negativity to that one person for the progression of the club.
“It’s a hard thing to navigate and go through, and I don’t envy Lee in the slightest running a women’s team.
“We had a lot of new players joining and one thing I noticed was, they all said that the feeling within the club is special and they want to play for us, that is a lovely feeling.”
SJR went on to win 8 of their next 9 games, secured sixth place and safety in the League, and went on to win the League Plate Cup.
How far do you think the feel-good factor in the club could take you?
“As far as we want!
“I’ve spoken to Guest and Lee to look at what we can do for next season. The development squad have just been promoted, so women’s football for Worksop in general, is on the rise. Why would you not want to be part of this? We’ve got the funds behind us. We’ve got the facilities behind us.
“Speaking to Guest, the way he talks about his future plans, the ideas in his head, it’s like, this is amazing, this is what I want to be a part of.
“It’s an exciting time to be a footballer in Worksop and specifically a footballer for SJR. Definitely. Yeah.”
Something Andrew said when we spoke to him was that now Worksop are in Tier Five, the players have almost become mini celebrities in Worksop. Have you noticed that you’re getting a bit more attention?
“Well the followers have gone up on my Instagram and socials! But I live about an hour and a half from Worksop, So I don’t live in the town.
“For me I get a bit of an escapism from it, however, there are girls in our squad that do live in Worksop and make comments about things. You’re wearing the kit and people look and go ‘ooh I know that.’
“Celebrity wise, I’ve not quit my job yet, but I can definitely see there’s a lot more publicity about us and the more that we do that, the bigger the fanbase we’ll get.“
You already mentioned about the Lionesses and the Euro 2022 win. How big of an impact did you feel that have on women’s football and also across your whole career, what sort of changes have you noticed?
“I remember years ago it was Doncaster Belles vs Sunderland and there was a crowd of something like 1,800 and it was the biggest crowd at that time for the WSL. I remember being there and thinking, ‘wow’ and now to see that at Arsenal they’re getting 60,000, it’s unbelievable.
“I wish I could start my football journey now. Any girls that are starting their football journey, my God, the world’s your oyster.
“The opportunities that you have and the amount of teams there are, it’s brilliant.”
And just finally, looking ahead beyond your time at Worksop, you used to coach a bit, post career do you think potentially a return to coaching?
“Possibly… I’ve got my badges up to level two so I would never say never to coaching but I think it’s a hard thing to do. It’s not a secure job as we can see from the top flights of football but I think when I’m no longer a player, having some involvement in the game, it will be needed.
“For now though I’m just focussed on my playing career and for the rest of my career, I can safely say that Worksop’s my future.”
SYWF also spoke to SJR Worksop CEO, Andrew Guest about the progression of the club, as well as SJR Manager Lee Scott about his own footballing journey.
