Never mind jumpers for goalposts, it was headlights for floodlights in the early days of Birmingham City’s rise to FA Women’s Premier League prominence.

Formed in 1968 and playing in regional leagues for the first three decades of their existence, Blues broke into the League’s Northern Division in 1999 as a hugely pro-active youth development policy began to pay dividends.

Dark and almost terminal days were to follow for the club a few years later, but at the turn of the century Birmingham City Ladies (as they were then known) were on the cusp of something very special.

With the players – senior and junior – managed and coached by professional footballer Marcus Bignot and his right hand man Micky Moore, the club was headed up by Steve Shipway following his appointment as chairman in 1998.

Passenger transport businessman Shipway, who as a young player was on City’s books before having a long semi-professional career, was a qualified physiotherapist and acted as the women’s team’s physio right through to 2010.

“I’d known Marcus and Micky since they were both 10-year-olds,” said Shipway. “I used to coach them when they were at Shenley Court Junior School.

“Marcus asked me to go along to a club committee meeting with him, and I could see that issues needed addressing on the admin as well as the playing side.

“I took over as chairman shortly after that and the first thing we did was expand the junior set-up. We only had 10 kids at that time, but it didn’t take us long to put together Under-10, Under-12 and Under-14 teams.

“It was fun – there was fantastic enthusiasm from everybody involved, from the kids to the coaches to the parents. On dark evenings we used to practice in a local park with lighting provided by the parents’ cars – they’d form a big circle, put their headlights on, and off we’d go with coaching sessions.

“At senior level that first season we’d only got a squad of 15 players, but we won the Midland Combination to qualify for the Northern Division and as a club we took off from there.”  

Take off Blues most certainly did, with their highly promising teenagers to the fore; youngsters like Karen Carney and Eniola Aluko, both of whom made their senior team debuts at 14 to start pathways to England international stardom.

Blues spent three years in the Northern Division, finally reaching the top flight when they won their divisional table in a tumultuous 2001/02 campaign that not only brought promotion but also a run to the final of the Premier League Cup.

The final, against a Fulham team which at that time was the only full-time professional outfit in Europe, was lost 7-1. “We got absolutely thumped,” admitted Shipway, “but the girls gave their all and it was a memorable day.

“It gave us an idea of what we were about to face in the National Division, and it was certainly a big jump from playing in the Northern Division. But we were ready for it, we’d built a structure that we could develop.”

After two seasons of consolidation in the top flight, ambitions were expanded and Blues had an impressive fourth place finish in 2004/05. The Birmingham boom came at a cost, however, and boom very, very nearly ended in bust. 

Shipway explained. “We spent more than we'd got in 2004-05, particularly on paying players. We’d got a sponsor who said they’d provide us with £15,000 a year, and that’s what we worked our budget on.

“We signed players like (England and former Arsenal stars) Rachel Yankey and Alex Scott on big money, but then the sponsor jumped ship in January and left us right in the lurch. 

“At the end of that season our big players left, Marcus left and Birmingham City FC (men’s club) walked away from us after agreeing to back us. We were dead. 

“Just before the start of the 2005-06 season I rang the Football Association to tell them we would have to resign from the (Women’s) Premier League, but a day later I got a call from a parent of one of our players to say he’d give us £10,000.

“That allowed us to start the season, and with Micky Moore in charge of what was virtually a kids team we did stuff like jumble sales and bucket collections to keep us going while we put together a sustainable business structure that eventually took us from strength to strength.”

Over the next five seasons Birmingham held their own in the National Division and then became founder members of the FA Women’s Super League in 2010, going on to win the FA Cup two years later and reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 2013-14.

Shipway, who left his role of chairman in 2017, said: “Coming back from the dead was what made us as a club – and it certainly made me as a chairman.

“It taught me a lesson. I wouldn’t speculate again after what had happened to us. From then on we budgeted on what we knew we’d got, and by the time I stepped down we were a solid and sustainable football club.”


It was certainly the club’s greatest day to that point in their history, Bignot’s youngsters – with an average age of 18 – coming from 3-1 behind to win 4-3 against the vastly experienced Belles on the Yorkshire side’s own turf, the Miners’ Welfare Club in Doncaster.

England Under-19 striker Katy Ward hit a hat-trick including a spectacular winner, driving home a 30-yard free-kick in the closing stages.

“The girls lacked a bit of self-belief early on,” said Bignot, “but I went up there believing we would win and the girls believed it too once we’d got to half-time.”

“It was an incredible day,” recalled club chairman Steve Shipway. “It got so emotional that Marcus and me both broke out in tears at the final whistle!”

Not so emotional was the Cup final, which ended in a 7-1 defeat by a Fulham team that at the time were the only full-time professional outfit in Europe.

“My girls worked their socks off,” said Bignot, “but it was all down to Fulham's sheer professionalism in the end.” 

“We got absolutely thumped,” admitted Shipway, “but the girls gave their all and it was a memorable day – and not the last one that season.”

Blues bounced back from that defeat, in what was their first major final, by winning four of their last five league games to take the Northern Division title and claim promotion to the top flight for the first time in the club’s history.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Images from Simon Mooney and John Buckle for The FA.