By Thomas White
February 24 2009

A Welsh Premier League to boost womens football in the country is commencing next season which will come with the carrot of possible European Qualification and w-p.co,uk focuses on Aberystwyth Town FC Ladies who currently play in the Cost Cutter Ceredigion Ladies league. Manager Ray Hughes talks to Aber Junior reporter Jordan Payne

How many of the women’s team started right at the beginning?

What happened was a gentleman called Huw George Evans and myself both have daughter the same age and they were involved with the Aberystwyth girls in the Powys league and I was involved with girls because of my daughter and Huw’s daughter wanted to go on and we realised it would be a good idea to start an under fourteen and under sixteen team through the club. We started the Aberystwyth Ladies four seasons ago (when they officially joined the league: Ed) and I’ve been running the Aber ladies now for the second season since Huw finished.

How many cups and medals over the years have the team won?

We’ve only had four season and when we first started we had a discussion between Huw and myself and a few others who were involved and we agreed it would take a good four years before we could challenge for anything but last season we were runners up in the league and the season before we lost in the league cup final against Tregaron but we won the central Wales cup two seasons ago (at Park Avenue in an attendance that came close to matching a typical Welsh Prem Crowd) so that is the only trophy we’ve got so far but I think the bunch of girls I’ve got at the moment we have an excellent chance of winning something this year. We are still in three cups, Central Wales, Welsh Cup, and League Cup. We’re in the semi final of the League cup which we have against Crannog, we’re in the quarter final of the central Wales cup which we’ve got against Tregaron and we’re in the last sixteen of the Welsh cup against Caernarfon. (Unfortunately at time of press Aber went out 1-0)

Is there going to be a Premier League for women next year?

Yes its been organised by splitting Wales into two and there will be four teams in the North and four in the South, those four teams play in a mini league and the winner will go on to play the winner in the other league and the following season the winner will be playing in Europe just like the men’s league. We’re in the north section and we are playing with Wrexham, Caernarfon and Llanidloes. I know Llanidloes have beaten Wrexham in the Welsh cup and we have beaten Llanidloes as well. So it will be an interesting season next season.

Do you think it’s a good idea?

I think it’s a way of developing the ladies game but the disadvantage is that the men’s game has been going on for over a hundred years so they are well ahead of us and we have a lot of catching up to do in Ladies football. But I think it is, it might struggle for the first couple of years because in the local league all the good players might want to play in the Welsh Premier league and that might affect those other teams and that might mean they won’t get enough players and drop out of the Ceredigion league. But it will definitely help with the development of Ladies football.

(www.atfc.org.uk)

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Goal keeper Melanie Thomas is a Wales Youth International and former player Tanya Wilde went on to sign for Bristol Rovers Academy. 

The side also enjoy extensive publicity by having their own page on the clubs website and have their Facebook group which is reguarly updated with match reports and player interviews . Highlights of games can also be found on youtube including their last game where they beat Aberystwyth University 5-0. 

Another boost for the Ladies team is that next season is that they are set to have their own pitch and have access to changing facilities at Aberystwyth's Cricket club 

 More can be found on www.atfc.org.uk/ladies