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FC United Women announce 2018/19 pre-season fixture schedule and dates

FC United Women announce 2018/19 pre-season fixture schedule and datesFC United Women are pleased to announce our pre-season fixture schedule and dates for the upcoming 2018/19 season.

Off the back of a superb treble-winning season, the Reds will play eight games across the months of July and August in preparation for the 2018/19 campaign, which will involve a stadium fixture, four road trips and an inaugural tri-team tournament at Broadhurst Park (3G).

Luke Podmore’s side will get their 2018/19 pre-season campaign underway with the visit of Derry City LFC on Sunday 15th July. The visitors, who currently play in the Northern Ireland Women’s Football Association pyramid, will face the Reds inside the Broadhurst Park stadium - the first home game for United in the main stadium, since it was announced as our permanent home from the 2018/19 season onwards, last month.

One week later, we play host to our first ever tri-team tournament. Joining the Reds in the three-team competition will be Stoke City FC Ladies and the Isle of Man Ladies. Having finished 4th in the FA Women’s Premier League Northern Division (tier 3 of pyramid) last season, Stoke will compete in the newly-named FA Women’s National League in 2018/19 with the tri-team tournament part of their preparations for the new season. As for the Isle of Man, their side recently came runners-up in the women’s football competition at the 2017 Island Games in Sweden.

Following a home start to the schedule, the Reds will be on the road for the first time, the following week, with a trip to the Sheffield United Academy to face Sheffield United Ladies Development Squad. Recently, the Blades’ first-team had their bid accepted to play in the FA Women’s Championship from next season (previously WSL 2).

The trip to Sheffield is the first of four away games on the bounce for Luke Podmore’s team and the first of two consecutive games in Yorkshire, as United are set to make a visit to the Yorkshire Payments Stadium on Sunday 5th August to face Brighouse Town LFC. FCUMW edged the most recent meeting between the sides, in pre-season last year, as a Jess Battle double and a Fliss Winters strike was enough to make us 3-1 winners at Broadhurst Park (3G), back in August 2017.

Following the back-to-back trips to Yorkshire, United travel down to the Midlands for the first and only time in the schedule as we are set to play FA Women’s National League Division 1 Midlands side West Bromwich Albion FC Women. Having finished bottom of the FA Women’s Premier League Northern Division last season, the club will play in the fourth tier of the Women’s Football pyramid in the 2018/19 season. The game will be played at the Walsall Campus of the University of Wolverhampton on Sunday 12th August.

The Reds’ penultimate game of the schedule, and final road trip of the preparations, sees us take our preparations over to Wales as we are scheduled to face Cardiff City FC Women. The Welsh Women’s Premier League side will meet with the Reds for the first-ever time, on Sunday 19th August.

FCUMW will conclude their pre-season tour back at Broadhurst Park (3G) with the visit of the Doncaster Belles Development Squad. The two sides met during pre-season, one year ago on the 3G, with United captain Kirsty Chambers scoring the only goal of the match to help the Reds finish pre-season with nine wins from nine games.

Manager Luke Podmore is looking forward to his second pre-season campaign as FCUMW manager. "I cannot wait to be back to it. We have had a good rest and the group is heading in to pre-season stronger than ever having achieved what we did together last season. We’ve grown so much as a team and as people - I’m so excited about who we have with us for next year."

"We have some wonderful games lined up including the first one in our wonderful stadium which will give the players another taste of that environment ahead of the league campaign starting. Following that we have a really good schedule to give us some really tough challenges which is what we want", Podmore added.

Podmore is more than confident that the Reds can kick on from their successes last season, starting with the upcoming pre-season campaign. "I learnt a lot about this amazing group of players last season and they will have learnt a lot about me. It was our first full season together and they’ve grasped everything and trusted everything I’ve done, that’s why we’ve become such a family and have such a wonderful bond now. I can’t wait to see what they have got in pre-season, I know I will get 100% out of them all. Let’s see what we can do."

Full pre-season schedule:

- Sun 15/07 - vs Derry City LFC (Home)
- Sun 22/07 - vs Stoke City FC Ladies & Isle of Man Ladies - Tri-team tournament (Home)
- Sun 29/07 - vs Sheffield United LFC Development Squad (Away)
- Sun 05/08 - vs Brighouse Town LFC (Away)
- Sun 12/08 - vs West Bromwich Albion (Away)
- Sun 19/08 - vs Cardiff City FC Women (Away)
- Sun 26/08 - vs Doncaster Belles Development Squad (Home)

Full venue and kick-off time details will be available shortly via our social media channels. Be sure to stay tuned for further information over the coming weeks.

Facebook - FCUnitedWomen
Twitter - @FCUnitedWomen
Instagram - @fcunitedwomen

By Mikey Partington


First Posted ~ 19:03 Tue 5 Jun 2018
News ID ~ 7921
Last Updated ~ 16:00 Fri 19 Feb 2021