A history lesson for you all, just to give some variation to the usual match reports. Back in 1997 I helped start the first girls team in Denton, my daughter Natasha (the girl with the coach’s arm around her in the middle), was my first signing. The Team was called Denton Eagles, and here is the crest of the now defunkt club:-
The coach Stacey Copeland went on to play at a high level, including England U21’s, and just recently, has made her 3rd come back to Denton, playing the remainer of the season with the ladies. The guy in the purple shirt (he never was a fashion guru),is Billy Johnston, who together with his son Mike (two to the right of Billy in a white shirt), today help run the very successful ladies team at Denton Town. Many of the girls in the picture continued to play football up until very recently, and Vicky (GK above and son of Billy/brother of Mike), still plays for us, celebrating her 21st birthday this weekend. In them days, we regularly got thrashed 15, 20 and even 26-0, but we persevered.
In 2000 we moved onto Denton Villa, who were firmly established as a Football and Netball club, but only had a trial girls team, who we played before completing the switch. The picture on the left is Denton Villa 13’s A who I helped run with Ron Halsall (pictured), whom some of you might remember from a couple of seasons back. On the right were our rivals (LOL Mike), Denton Villa 13’s B. Derby day was great has we used to wind the two teams up, and it created an electic atmosphere. Best memory for me was when my daughter (GK left pic), scored directly from her own area, and the team went wild. I used to get match reports in the advertiser in them days as well, but just don’t have the time now – cue parent with time on their hands to get it going again.

Notice anybody in this picture taken at United’s traning ground Dec 2001? Well, the 14’s should. On the far right hand side is Tim who had only just joined us, and just in front, our little mascot, Ruby. Aw, cute or what?On the left hand side is Lee Halsall, son of Ron who I mentioned earlier. Tim, now of course runs the 14’s with Alan Brewer, who between them make a fabulous coaching team.
During 2002 myself and Ron set-up a womens’ team at Denton Town, with a view to a full merger between Town and Villa at a later date. Unfortunately, due to a clash of personalilites, the merger didn’t happen, and myself, Ron and several other managers opted to leave Villa and join Town, with the junior teams commencing their first season in Town colours during 2003. Below is a picture of the ladies after winning the cup in 2007.
I also would like to mention Alan Harvey (pic below in the middle, to his right Adam Taylor now with Fletcher Moss). Alan has been involved with girls football probably as long as me, bringing his daughter, Kate, to Denton Villa after her previous team, Tameside, told her the team had folded (telling her at the ground on the first day of that particular season). Alan ran a very successful 14’s team a few season ago, winning several tournaments, and his GK Natalie Williams, sister of today’s 14’s GK Chloe is still a part of Denton Town ladies. His current team, the 11’s (assisted by Kate and parents John and Fonzo), are well on their way to winning an historic treble – fingers crossed. Below is a picture of Denton Town’s u10’s Red and Blue teams, taken in 2004. At the time Fletcher Moss didn’t have enough players, so we allowed their girls to become part of our club for one season, whilst FM went about finding more players. This was widely applauded at the time by the league, FA and made front page of the BBC’s Grass Root Sports website. This was the team Keely, Sophie and Megan of today’s 14’s joined. Ironically, due to a shortage of players, DT had to fold the team, and with the exception of the three girls mentioned above, the rest of the team went to Fletcher Moss with our blessings. The Fletcher Moss U13’s have just been crowned champions of the SMGFL.

Also, Amy Mather who is coaching the 12’s, has been with Denton for years, I signed her on in about 2000 as a player. Here she is below with the 14’s from a few seasons ago, together with her dad Steve. Amy has many qualifications now in a variety of sports, and works for Tameside as a multi-sport coach.

Recent additions to our coaching squad are Rick Cartner who plays for the mens team and scored the winner in last year’s cup final. Rick is working along side Amy. Also, Sarah, who joined us last summer, but went coaching in America for a while. She’s back now, and assists me with the Girls Soccer School. And, though not officially part of Denton Town, Lee Prince has also taken several of the Girls Soccer School’s sessions.
That more or less brings us upto date with the female side of Denton Town. Today, we are one of the most pro-active clubs in womens’ football, within the Greater Manchester Area as the following shows: –
Ladies – Double winners of Lancs League and Cup 2007 and currently in a good position in the North West Women’s Regional Football League.
14’s Girls – Won the South Manchester Girls League 2007 and currently on track to do the treble. We have also embarked upon a challenging project to take all the girls on a player exchange trip to Texas, USA in 2009, and if successful, could open the door for other teams to travel abroad in years to come.
12’s Girls -Difficult season so far, but it looks like they have started to turn the corner, and we are confident they can do well in the League Cup just commenced in the Oldham League.
11’s Girls – Won the Tameside Cup last year, and like the 14’s are on course for the treble in the South Manchester Girls League.
Girls Soccer School – One of an handful of clubs in Gtr. M/cr who are pushing for girls football at the under 8/9’s age group, giving girls the opportunity to play football in all female teams, rather than the present system where they have no choice but to join a boys team, until they reach 9/10 years of age. We have captured the imagination of local leagues and Manchester Football Association, who we hope to have meetings with in the very near future.
The above is also used to mentor up and coming coaches/referees such as Nicole, Chloe and Georgia from the 14’s, in prepartion for them entering the Step into Sport program once they have all attained 14 years of age.
In addition, we were one of the original clubs to join the Tameside Girls Football Development Group headed by Matthew Johnson, and still attend today.
Hope you enjoyed the little read.
Nigel.
2019 – Update.
In 2009, many felt things weren’t working out at Denton Town, mainly because it was a senior club, and not that focused on junior football (we had boys and girls teams at the time). A discussion at Egerton Park Secondary School (now Denton Community College), and the parents were asked for their opinions about a way forward. It was generally agreed that we needed to be a girls only club, because many girls at that time, regardless of ability, felt intimidated playing football with the boys. The decision was made to create a new club, namely Denton Girls F.C.
2010 – the club embarked on their first trip overseas, visiting Loret de Mar in Spain, playing a local team, and visiting Barcelona and Espanol FC.
2014 –first trip to Gruenenbaum in Germany, as part of a delegation supported by Denton Town Twinning Association. Denton is twinned with Kierspe (near Gruenenbaum) and also Montigny-le-Brettonneux near Paris.
2015- Germans visit us
2016 – One team went to Montigny le Brettonneux, and another to visit our German friends again.
2017 – We host both the French and Germans in Ashton under Lyne.
2018 – We meet up once again with our German friends as guests of the French.
2019 – We are due to travel to Germany again, this time we’re not sure if the French will be there.

        CLUB NAME CHANGE
Over the course of the Summer Denton Girls FC will be renaming to Tameside United Girls FC.
Why are we doing this?
Since 2015 we have based ourselves at New Charter Academy, due to lack of facilities in Denton and have found confusion with new players connecting and understanding the club
We have recently entered into a Partnership with Hyde FC and as such they will be taking on our newly formed Open Age team as well as supporting the growth of the Junior and Youth teams
The change of club name should help broaden the appeal of the club and provide more of a realistic understanding of the current players within the squad and the area we cover
There has been confusion over the past two years over being named “Denton Girls FC” but not being in Denton, this has led to a lot of enquiries where parents have enquired but then been unable to access our training venue. Feedback from new Parents is that they have not found it easy to understand the clubs name given our location.
What will change
Training times, venue and teams will not change for the Girls teams
The Under 17s teams will move training venue to Hyde FC Ewen Fields to free up resources and training slots at New Charter
From July we will operating a Soccer School for girls aged 4-6 at New Charter Academy from 6pm to 7pm in the indoor sports hall to support further growth
All teams will be rebadging before September to Tameside United Girls FC, with new training kit and playing kits provided by the start of the season
A new club website will be created to support the change in club name, ensuring the previous Denton Girls FC site remains in place for posterity.
We will be holding two club open days in June and July this year as part of our recruitment of new players to the club
Hyde FC will providing support to our coaches to improve coaching standard and setting of session plans to support their development

PARTNERSHIP WITH HYDE FC
We have recently entered into a partnership with local semi professional team- Hyde United FC. The aim is to provide a strong pathway for players within our club to progress further should they choose to within football.
As part of this we will be promoting the RSC Academy Programme to players once they reach Year 11 as option for further education.

In return Hyde FC will be taking on our Open Age team, with the overall aim of turning them into a Semi Professional paid team within the next few years. Their aim in doing this is to create a pathway for players through ourselves to progress into the best they can achieve, an ambition that is shared here.
Hyde FC will be sharing resources, pitches, coaching and funding to help support the growth of our Junior teams over the coming years.

MEMBERSHIP AND REGISTRATION
As part of our restructure at the club, a new club constitution has been agreed upon that now provides a clear pathwayfor parents, guardians and adults to take a more active role in how the club is ran and governed.

As a result we would ask if all parents etc would consider becoming full members of the club, membership forms have been included in this pack.

Why become a member?
Voting rights to Club Roles
Right to stand on the Club Committee
Right to attend club meetings and take part in the development of the Girls Football Club
Help the club showcase best practice
Support the club in continuing to grow and develop their players

Once Membership forms are collected we will be announcing the clubs AGM in July this year in order to ask for Full Members to stand for the below committee roles:
Chair
Vice Chair
Secretary
Child Welfare Officer
Treasurer
Registrations Secretary
Football Development Officer

We would ask if Registration Forms can be returning to the club as soon as possible, in order to support the clubs insurance we would advise that currently only registered players would be able to participate in the clubs summer tournaments. This is also due to changes to the way Registrations will be managed over the summer, with all registrations moving to an online method therefore please ensure your email address in included in your membership forms.

All Players must complete new registration forms and Standing order forms for signing back on to Tameside United Girls FC. All previous Standing Orders will be cancelled in July this year with the New standing orders beginning from July as well during the Handover.

FRENCH/ GERMAN VISITS
French/German Visit - carrying on from our previous European exchanges, we are pleased to announce that ASMB from Montigny le Brettonneux near Paris, and TüS Grünenbaum from Halver, near Kierspe in Germany, will be our guests at Tameside Sea Cadets (TSC) from Friday 7th to Tuesday 11th July.   Montigny and Kierspe are the twin towns of Denton, and it is through the initial hard work of Denton Town Twinning Association, that we have these exciting relationships with clubs from other countries.   We are currently building up a programme of events for them, which include:-

Welcoming Event at TSC on the Friday evening;
Day out in Manchester on the Saturday, including tour of MUFC, Trafford Centre and Laserquest. Transport is full unfortunately, but there is an opportunity for our girls to meet down at Old Trafford or Laserquest, and take part in those activities;
Saturday evening we will arrange a in a table football competition at TSC;
Competing in out tournament (under 12-13s) at Hyde United on the Sunday, as part of our new relationship with RSA Academy and Hyde United Football Club;
Other activities to be advised.

It is hoped that some of our girls will participate in the table football, the tournament and possibly space for 2-3 to sleep over on Saturday at TSC, giving an opportunity to really get to know some of our guests, and learn about each others languages and cultures.

The ages of our guests are from 12-14 years, and it envisaged that we will arrange to travel to Germany, sometime in 2018, hopefully with the French joining us.

Natalie and Cheryl have offered to help out in arranging to supply and provide a cold breakfast on the Saturday morning, possible buffet in the evening, and also another buffet at the tournament.   But we need more volunteers to ease the load, including purchasing provisions (finance by DGFC), serving, tidying up and brining forward idea. If you think you can help, please get in touch with Nigel, Cheryl or Natalie as soon as possible.

CLUB FUNDS/ SUBS
As the club aims to continue to grow and improve its facilities, the club still does operate some of the cheapest subs in Greater Manchester to support our players and their families. However even with the addition of the support from Hyde FC and the support of the Grants and support from individuals the club does continue to strive to provide greater facilities to our players and coaches.

As a result we are looking for support in Sponsorship and Fundraising over the summer to help purchase new coaching equipment and to fund the cost of the new kits that will be needed over the summer to bring all teams upto the same standard by the time the full season begins in September 2017.

Please do speak to your coaches if you are able to support in any way.

We look forward to seeing you at presentation evening on the 26th May 2017.

The Committee at Tameside United Girls Football Club