CROYDON NAME HEADS FOR OBLIVION AFTER TRIUMPHANT SEASON
With no hint of what was to come during the 2000 close season, when the proud Croydon name would be lost to women’s football, Debbie Bampton MBE’s team kicked off the campaign in August with the aim of retaining their Premier League title.
And they not only won the National Division again but also, for the second time in four seasons, completed the double of League and FA Cup – this despite struggling to play at their best during the second half of the campaign.
“Since Christmas we have found it difficult to find our form, we’ve been grinding out results,” was player-manager Bampton’s honest evaluation to ‘On the Ball’ magazine in an interview towards the end of the season.
Bampton’s tightly knit squad determinedly maintained their ‘underdogs’ mentality – particularly with arch rivals Arsenal in mind. “On paper,” she insisted, “Arsenal are the best team in the league, without a doubt. They could wipe the floor with us.
“People like Marieanne Spacey, Rachel Yankey and Ciara Grant – who I think is probably one of the best midfielders I have played against.”
That ‘outsiders/upstarts’ outlook served Croydon well, as did Bampton’s use of a (table top football game) Subbuteo pitch for tactics at away games: “The girls thought it was hilarious,” she said, “so it became a kind of superstition because we never lost.”
They did in fact lose one away game, and it was indeed Arsenal who finally ended their 23-month unbeaten run, beating them 3-0 in Croydon’s penultimate match of the campaign.
Meanwhile the Gunners’ opening day loss at their ‘bogey team’ Tranmere Rovers, plus valuable points lost at places such as Liverpool, were indicative of a largely unsuccessful campaign for them – though they did lift the League Cup with a 3-1 victory over Croydon in the final.
Instead of Arsenal, it was an impressive Doncaster Belles who remained in pole position for much of the campaign, with the reigning champions lurking behind them with games in hand and only moving into top spot in late April.
Spearheaded by inspirational striker Karen Walker – who top-scored in the division with 21 goals – and Melanie Garside (17 goals), the Belles boasted a prolific forward pairing that delighted boss Julie Chipchase: “Mel and Kaz have linked together even better than I had hoped,” she told 'On the Ball'.
However, as it turned out, the Belles’ title claim was effectively crushed by an early season 2-0 defeat at the hands of Croydon and then a 1-1 draw with them during the autumn. They eventually finished just one point off the summit but with a superior goal difference. The Belles beat Everton 4-1 but just four hours later Croydon had put six past Villa and secured the title.
The margins of victory were certainly fine and the final table could have looked quite different, for example, if fourth-placed Everton had not had a goal disallowed and conceded a stoppage-time penalty (converted by Jo Broadhurst) in what ended as a 5-4 defeat by Croydon, during March.
From that point Bampton’s team duly marched on to a double-winning success to confirm that they were decidedly not underdogs. Somewhat cruelly for the Belles they were also to narrowly miss out on the FA Cup trophy, losing 2-1 to the same opposition in the final.
The season’s bottom two clubs, Reading Royals and Aston Villa, were both relegated. Villa would get promoted back for the 2003/04 season but the Royals, after losing their affiliation with men’s club Reading FC in 2006, were destined to drop out of the Premier League in 2008.
For champions Croydon, however, it was the end of the line as far as their name was concerned.
They had been playing under the umbrella of men’s amateur team Croydon FC, who ironically in that same season had won the Isthmian League to make it a club double.
During the summer that followed, the women’s team was controversially taken over by the then Premier League men’s club Charlton Athletic after protracted discussions.
The vast majority of the players decided to play under the Charlton banner, but Bampton and star striker Jo Broadhurst opted to leave and both joined Doncaster Belles.
Bampton was unhappy with the Croydon/Charlton situation but, speaking to ‘On The Ball’ in the Spring of 2000, she had prophetically opined: “I think it’s only a matter of time before Croydon links up with a professional club, perhaps Charlton or Crystal Palace.
“Our (Croydon FC) chairman might not want us to go, because we’ve been good for them and they’ve been good to us. But then we're doing better than teams like Liverpool and Millwall, who are linked to men’s clubs, so what could be done to make us better than we are now?”
FINAL TABLE
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Croydon | 18 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 58 | 13 | 47 | +45 |
| 2 | Doncaster Belles | 18 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 66 | 14 | 46 | +52 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 18 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 73 | 13 | 41 | +60 |
| 4 | Everton | 18 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 62 | 31 | 33 | +31 |
| 5 | Tranmere Rovers | 18 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 43 | 36 | 28 | +7 |
| 6 | Southampton Saints | 18 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 23 | 22 | 18 | +1 |
| 7 | Millwall Lionesses | 18 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 19 | 43 | 18 | -24 |
| 8 | Liverpool | 18 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 15 | 38 | 16 | -23 |
| 9 | Reading Royals | 18 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 20 | 64 | 11 | -44 |
| 10 | Aston Villa | 18 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 6 | 81 | 1 | -75 |
FA WOMEN’S PREMIER LEAGUE NATIONAL DIVISION 1999-2000 RESULTS
29/08/1999
Aston Villa 0-4 Croydon
Doncaster Belles 3-0 Southampton Saints
Reading Royals 0-0 Liverpool
Tranmere Rovers 3-2 Arsenal
1/9/1999
Liverpool 1-0 Tranmere Rovers
Southampton Saints 1-1 Reading Royals
5/9/1999
Croydon 1-0 Tranmere Rovers
Doncaster Belles 2-0 Arsenal
Everton 13-0 Reading Royals
Liverpool 1-0 Aston Villa
Southampton Saint 1-0 Millwall Lionesses
12/9/1999
Aston Villa 2-4 Everton
Doncaster Belles 0-2 Croydon
Millwall Lionesses 3-0 Liverpool
Reading Royals 0-3 Arsenal
Tranmere Rovers 2-0 Southampton Saints
19/9/1999
Arsenal 3-0 Southampton Saints
Aston Villa 0-6 Doncaster Belles
Croydon 7-2 Reading Royals
Everton 1-1 Liverpool
Millwall Lionesses 1-1 Tranmere Rovers
3/10/1999
Doncaster Belles 2-1 Liverpool
Croydon 1-0 Arsenal
Tranmere Rovers 5-0 Aston Villa
10/10/1999
Aston Villa 0-1 Reading Royals
Millwall Lionesses 1-5 Doncaster Belles
24/10/1999
Arsenal 5-0 Everton
Doncaster Belles 4-1 Tranmere Rovers
31/10/1999
Liverpool 2-1 Southampton Saints
7/11/1999
Arsenal 10-1 Aston Villa
Croydon 4-1 Liverpool
Reading Royals 0-10 Doncaster Belles
Tranmere 5-0 Millwall Lionesses
14/11/1999
Arsenal 2-1 Doncaster Belles
Aston Villa 0-0 Liverpool
Millwall Lionesses 1-1 Southampton Saints
Reading Royals 1-6 Everton
Tranmere Rovers 1-5 Croydon
21/11/1999
Arsenal 9-0 Reading Royals
Croydon 2-2 Doncaster Belles
Everton 6-0 Aston Villa
Southampton Saints 0-2 Tranmere Rovers
5/12/1999
Aston Villa 1-8 Arsenal
Doncaster Belles 3-1 Everton
Millwall Lionesses 0-4 Croydon
Reading Royals 1-3 Southampton Saints
Tranmere Rovers 6-1 Liverpool
12/12/1999
Arsenal 8-1 Tranmere Rovers
9/1/2000
Southampton Saints 0-2 Doncaster Belles
16/1/2000
Millwall Lionesses 1-1 Everton
23/1/2000
Aston Villa 1-3 Southampton Saints
Liverpool 1-3 Doncaster Belles
Millwall Lionesses 3-0 Reading Royals
26/1/2000
Croydon 1-0 Millwall Lionesses
30/1/2000
Aston Villa 0-1 Millwall Lionesses
Tranmere Rovers 0-2 Doncaster Belles
Southampton Saints 5-1 Liverpool
6/2/2000
Millwall Lionesses 2-0 Aston Villa
13/2/2000
Liverpool 0-4 Croydon
Reading Royals 3-0 Aston Villa
Southampton Saint 1-3 Arsenal
Tranmere Rovers 0-4 Everton
20/3/2000
Liverpool 0-3 Millwall Lionesses
27/2/2000
Liverpool 3-1 Reading Royals
Southampton Saints 5-1 Aston Villa
5/3/2000
Reading Royals 3-6 Tranmere Rovers
12/3/2000
Croydon 0-0 Southampton Saints
Doncaster Belles 6-1 Reading Royals
Everton 1-1 Arsenal
19/3/2000
Aston Villa 0-6 Doncaster Belles
Everton 4-5 Croydon
9/4/2000
Doncaster Belles 9-0 Aston Villa
Everton 3-0 Southampton Saints
Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
Reading Royals 1-10 Croydon
13/4/2000
Liverpool 2-4 Everton
16/4/2000
Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool
Southampton Saints 0-1 Croydon
24/4/2000
Arsenal 6-0 Millwall Lionesses
Croydon 3-0 Everton
30/4/2000
Millwall Lionesses 0-7 Arsenal
Southampton Saints 2-5 Everton
4/5/2000
Arsenal 3-0 Croydon
5/5/2000
Everton 3-0 Tranmere Rovers
6/5/2000
Croydon 6-0 Aston Villa
Everton 1-4 Doncaster Belles
7/5/2000
Doncaster Belles 2-1 Millwall Lionesses
