Wath Stars Ladies have made the decision to form with Dinnington Town ahead of the 2025/26 season. After a promotion winning debut campaign in the SHWGL Division 2, Wath head coach discusses the reasons behind the move.
Wath Stars Ladies formed ahead of the 2024/25 season, going straight into Division 2. It looked set to be a challenging campaign for Connor Rippon’s side, having been thrown together three weeks before season, but they defied expectations by achieving promotion.
“Wath is a club that’s run the right way,” said Rippon, speaking exclusively to SYWF. “They all do a fantastic job and I’ve got nothing but respect for them. We’re so grateful they gave us the platform to play football and enjoy this season.
“This squad was thrown together three weeks before the season started. In one of our first sessions, we spoke about our aims for the season. One of them was promotion and we did that and the fact we’ve now got a full pre-season with these ladies gives me every bit of confidence for next season.”
But rather than reflecting on the positive season, Rippon was more keen to look towards the future, and with that has come a change in club.
“Dinnington are a huge club, the facilities are up there with the best in South Yorkshire and after meeting with the chairman I knew that we had to move across.
“I think we want the same thing and they’re willing to give us all the backing we need so it was a no brainer for us.”
The reasons behind Wath Stars merging with Dinnington Town
Rippon discussed the inconsistencies his side had to face with training, being unable to settle a consistent plan with Wath Stars during the 2024/25 campaign.
“Yes it was a factor. I hate cancelling training anyway, the girls have got to be training every week in my opinion.
“Dinnington have given us the slots we wanted. I’m confident we have their full backing.
“We spoke a lot, I’m more than confident it’s a perfect match. I’ve been at a few ladies clubs before and the feeling around Dinnington is that they want a ladies side and are willing to do anything we need to make us successful, it’s just down to us and the ladies now to deliver.”
The players have also echoed the head coach’s thoughts on the move. Recent Wath Stars signing Maisie Brennan also showed her support for the move.
“The move opens up a lot of opportunities for the girls. The transition to Dinnington which is a club who thrives for success throughout all age groups seemed like the perfect fit.
“Regular training and great facilities to work in each week will help massively for the development and success of this hardworking group and we are eager to get started and take on a new challenge.”
The change in club hasn’t led to Rippon losing sight of next season’s targets.
“The aim is always the same,” the head coach said. “Win the league. Easier said than done and I’m not getting ahead of myself because I know division 1 will be tough. There’s some fantastic teams in there who have been together for years with a mix of teams like ourselves that are young and eager to win things; it always makes for a competitive league.”
