Leeds United Women play waiting game over season resumption

The unveiling of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown puts the prospect of kicking off – perhaps, this time, for good – within tantalising reach for the Whites, who are expecting an update on the status of their league following weeks off the pitch.

Given the green light for grassroots football to return from March 29, the FA Women’s National League teased an April return on Twitter on Monday evening, while the league’s chair Carol West shared that they had “plenty to do but [are] raring to go.”

The same could be said of Brown and her team-mates; tomorrow is the 10-week anniversary of the Whites’ most recent game, a home loss to Liverpool Feds, and of the winger’s first goal of the season.

“When you score as an attacker, your confidence goes up,” she said. “You want to continue building on it, and you want to do it again the next week.”

After Leeds surrendered the lead earned by Brown’s cool, precise finish, the team’s chance to bounce back was swallowed up by a recess which extended long beyond the Christmas holidays.

“There were a lot of good vibes at the start of the season,” Brown noted. “Everyone was really happy to get back to it. But as the lockdowns kept coming and going, motivation diminished a bit.”

While the stability Brown craves could soon return, there remain familiar question marks over the current campaign and how best to resolve it, with 18 game-weeks still standing between Division One North clubs and a fair, complete league table.

The Whites and their opponents could draw sad conclusions from Wednesday’s announcement by the FA which detailed the fate of their male equivalents: the curtailment of steps 3-6 of the men’s National League System, with no more than a quarter of fixtures having been fulfilled in each tier.

Last year, Barnsley Women published a series of club statements which complained of the FA’s inconsistent treatment of the WNL and the NLS during the initial throes of the pandemic.

The Whites’ South Yorkshire counterparts, who led Division One North at close of play, accused the organisation of gender discrimination, describing their process of arriving at the decision which denied them promotion “severely flawed, unfair to women’s clubs, and not fit for purpose.”

With only six games under their belt, the stakes are far smaller this time around for ninth-place Barnsley, but the consultation they so fervently sought has been granted by the FAWNL, who contacted all clubs in January to invite expressions of preference for the resolution of the 2020-21 season.

Early results of the survey (seen by The Telegraph) suggest that 65 per cent of clubs are opposed to relegation and promotion regardless of whether a method for establishing league standings can be agreed upon.

Huddersfield Town have already resigned their claim to promotion; in spite of leading the Northern Premier Division after nine games, the club stated that they will not apply to move up on the grounds that recent uncertainty has disrupted proper preparations for competing in the Championship.

Meanwhile, as Leeds United Women await the publication of the FAWNL’s plans, it looks likely that their quest for promotion will continue into 2022.

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