Back in sunny September, top-flight Fulham laboured to a 1-0 win over our local Cambridge United in the League Cup. Under the Craven Cottage lights, I watched the Us work Fulham hard, but ultimately the outcome reflected the three-division gap between the sides and no massive cup upset took place.
Therefore, it came as a genuine surprise to discover that the same fixture in the women’s game was on far more equal ground. The two play in the fourth division of women’s football, with Cambridge having been established there for over a decade. Fulham only achieved promotion last season but are historically a huge name in the women’s game, having been the first full-time professional women’s team in Europe in 2000. They had immense success, achieving an unbeaten domestic treble, but within five years their controversial owner Mohamed Al-Fayed pulled funding, and the side was soon dissolved.
“There is a huge opportunity now to take responsibility for the errors of the past and build something new”
Struck by this starkly different context, and intrigued by what this juxtaposition might teach us about women’s football in England, I headed to Fulham’s rearranged league fixture at Cambridge. It was an experience that revealed first-hand how off-pitch decisions continue to hold the women’s game back.
‘Home’ fans had to trek out to St Neots, a town some 20 miles west of Cambridge where the match was being played, battered by the wind and rain plaguing the December afternoon. Fulham entered as league leaders, trying to defend an incredible 35-match unbeaten league run spanning nearly two years, having only dropped points once this season.
Cambridge conversely had not won a game since September, and despite the hosts enduring another 4-1 loss, there were so many wider positives to take from the match experience. The atmosphere at the ground was remarkably warm and friendly, with the staff and fans open to talk about their passions for the team. It was wonderful to see parents bring their children, both young girls and boys, to the ground, getting them involved with their local women’s team. A few dogs even roamed around the ground; the family-oriented feel was clear.
It was also heartening to see that many Fulham fans had travelled up, and to see them mingling well with the home supporters. This provided a welcome change from much of the toxicity which often plagues men’s football; while fan tension is exciting, its worst excesses are often on display.
The game also challenged many fans’ prejudiced assumption that the women’s game is an inherently inferior sport, that it is slower and less engaging. In light of the limitations of an extremely soft pitch and the semi-professional status of the players, it was a fantastic watch. The quality on display was clear, with clinical finishing, creative flair and strong defensive work from both sides. The match was largely competitive, and while Fulham displayed more technical quality, having signed multiple players from the second division over the summer, Cambridge fought hard and mitigated the disparity admirably.
Nevertheless, the pervasive challenges facing the women’s game were starkly noticeable. The game was played out in front of around 150 fans in St Neots, compared to 6000 at a Cambridge United men’s match two days before. Such a paltry figure could have been due to the biting weather, the fixture being rearranged, or misplaced allegations that simply ‘no one cared’. But these claims distract from far wider issues.
“The emptiness at St Neots reflects the difficulty of creating a shared identity across the club”
St Neots is neither in Cambridge, nor easily accessible by public transport. No trains link the two, only connected by a 45-minute bus. This is extremely likely to put off prospective fans; a 20 mile journey is a far bigger commitment than attending a game in the city. Earlier this season, a record 1074 supporters piled in to watch the women’s side take on QPR at the Abbey stadium, the first of two matches scheduled to be hosted there for 2025/26. There is evidently not a lack of interest in the team.
Instead, the emptiness at St Neots reflects the difficulty of creating a shared identity across the club. Cambridge United are a team deeply embedded in the local area, with the Abbey being walkable for most fans, and accessible by public transport and park & ride. Therefore, it is a very impactful detachment to play so far outside of the city, as it meaningfully detracts from the cohesion between the men’s and women’s teams.
This distance is less important for many other clubs, like their capital-based opponents Fulham, whose fans typically come from a much wider catchment area. They can justify playing most of their matches at the secondary ground – South London’s Motspur Park – as it is comparatively far closer to the average fan who is unlikely to live in Fulham itself.
This is part of a wider issue in women’s football. Only four Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs consistently use their clubs’ main stadiums, and in the latest round of the women’s FA Cup just three out of 16 ties will be played at club’s principal grounds, despite many men’s teams playing away. A prominent example is third division AFC Bournemouth women hosting WSL leaders Manchester City some 30 miles away from Bournemouth in Totton, all in order not to ‘overuse’ the pitch – a precaution unlikely to justify postponing a men’s match.
This is despite clear evidence of strong demand – Bournemouth women sold over 7000 tickets to a fourth division match last season. Indeed, Charlton Athletic’s infamous scheduling of three games in four days shows it is possible; ultimately it comes down to the right attitude of respect.
“It reinforces the idea that the women’s team is peripheral, not prioritised”
Hosting a match like Cambridge vs Fulham in a smaller town allows fresh locations to access traditionally bigger clubs, building a different kind of grassroots movement. But if less than 200 attend when the league leaders come to town, it reinforces the idea that the women’s team is peripheral, not prioritised.
This is all despite support for women’s sports having grown enormously. The Lionesses have sold out Wembley, the Red Roses have sold out Twickenham, and Arsenal Women have averaged over 35,000 fans this season – outdoing more than eight men’s Premier League teams.
There is a huge opportunity now to take responsibility for the errors of the past and build something new, on recently blossoming foundations. Women’s football was banned for over 50 years in this country, with the women’s game professionalising only in the last decade.
Fans have a crucial part to play in showing that they do want to support the team. However, Cambridge United’s game against Fulham demonstrated the choices that clubs need to make in order to take their women’s teams as seriously as they should be. Hosting matches in the city is not going to solve all of the problems, but it is a huge (and deserved) sign of respect for the team, it provides much more fertile ground for the fanbase to grow, and it unifies a club beyond their men’s team – making it a much more inclusive part of the local community.
