Last season, Wolves Women were locked in a fierce battle for promotion to the second tier of the Women’s Super League, and they still held a mathematical chance of finishing ahead of league leaders Nottingham Forest on the final matchday. What the squad did not realise, however, was that their hopes were ultimately futile. The deadline for submitting the promotion application had been February, yet the club had never filed the paperwork. The governing body deemed the demands of a full‑time programme too great for the club, even though Wolves met every technical criterion.

Head coach Dan McNamara only learned of the oversight after the season had ended. The news was delivered in the dressing room after the team secured a second‑place finish.

For captain Anna Morphet, the moment remains a painful memory. "It was a shock, complete disbelief.

A lot of emotions. I remember not knowing what to say so I did not say a lot, I was just trying to digest it," she recalled. Soon after, the players took to social media to voice their frustration.

One player spoke of feeling let down, another insisted they deserved better treatment. Fans and pundits alike criticised the lack of transparency and the apparent absence of institutional support. The episode served as a stark wake‑up call for the club’s hierarchy.

A year later, with Wolves once again on the cusp of promotion, the missing application has finally been lodged. The environment has shifted, and Morphet now describes the events of the previous year as both "incredibly tough" and galvanising. "Those moments bring you closer together. You look around and realise how special this group is and the characters in it.

If we didn't have the closeness that we had before finding out that news I don't know if we would have come through as well as we have," she said. Morphet also expressed empathy for McNamara, who had to be the bearer of bad news.

"For Macca, who has put in so much work for so many years to have to be the one to tell us - I knew it would not be anyone else, he would never shift responsibility - I cannot imagine how difficult it was." McNamara, visibly moved when reflecting on that day, described it as "one of the toughest things I have ever had to say." A former Royal Air Force serviceman, he leaned on his military training to navigate the leadership challenge. "When I was first told the news I was emotional. Part of me wanted to tell the girls and let the whole thing blow up and hope they did not turn up for the last few games of the season," he admitted. Instead, he chose to keep the information to himself until after the final fixture, allowing the players to savour their achievement before confronting the harsh reality.

"We decided that the girls needed to enjoy the moment together before we brought them back down to earth right away. We did not want to take away that moment they had worked so hard for. If we had done it, it would have been obviously horrendous," McNamara explained. He also confessed that he never imagined he would stay at Wolves.

"I just could not walk away from the girls. They said, 'look, shall we give the club a chance?

Do we really want to play elsewhere?' The general consensus was that we wanted to stick together." Would the club have collapsed, or could this have become a watershed moment? "Thankfully, it has been the latter." One year on, promotion is a single game away, and this time the organization is prepared. Wolves have dominated the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier Division, winning 20 of 22 matches and leading the league in goals scored.

Yet automatic promotion eluded them; they finished one point behind Burnley, who claimed the title. "We do feel a little hard done by," McNamara said, but his overriding sentiment is pride in the squad’s resilience. "They have done unbelievably well.

Through disrespect at times, through adversity at times. They represent this football club and this city impeccably." Chairperson Jenny Wilkes describes the journey as a "rollercoaster." A local radio presenter, Wilkes joined the club in 1999 after a request from Wolves legend and then chief executive John Richards. She set up a limited company, secured sponsors with help from former England cricketer Rachel Heyhoe‑Flint, and oversaw the early, gritty days of the women’s side. "One of the players' dads worked in road‑working machinery and he used to bring the machinery down to bang down a big divot in the middle of the pitch, until it was sand because that was the sort of pitch that we were playing on in those days," she reminisced.

Back then, players paid their own subscriptions, the captain collected cash on training nights, and the club had to be begged to allow kits to be purchased at cost price. "It was a much different place," Wilkes noted, adding that today the club enjoys far better communication and support, especially after technical director Matt Jackson joined the leadership team.

The low point of last year could have been the final chapter, but Wilkes has endured similar setbacks before—a promotion bid halted by the pandemic and a play‑off loss to Southampton. Yet the promise of promotion to the WSL’s second tier remains transformative: it would usher in full professionalism for the squad. McNamara acknowledges the logistical nightmare that would follow a successful promotion.

"If we were to get promoted we have a really, really short time frame to try and completely change the football club," he said, emphasizing the urgency of preparing infrastructure, staffing, and financial resources. For many players, the dream is simple: to play at the highest possible level. "To be able to play a small part in creating their dreams would mean the world to me," McNamara added. Morphet was among the first three women to sign a semi‑professional contract with Wolves, yet she still works several days a week as a physiotherapist.

The prospect of a fully professional contract would be seismic for her and her teammates. "We know it can be life‑changing," she said.

Reflecting on the journey, Morphet feels the current moment is surreal. "When you look at where we're at now, I think it just seems crazy that it happened but thankfully we have come out in a completely different light." After eight years and nearly 200 appearances, Wolves Women feels like a "home away from home" for Morphet. The sacrifice of juggling a day job with elite‑level training may finally be rewarded. "I knew deep down that I was never going to give myself the best chance to achieve the dream in football - which is full‑time - without a few sacrifices.

The amount of sacrifice we have all put in, you start to feel like something good must be around the corner," she reflected. Now Wolves Women stand at that crossroads.

They travel to Plymouth on Monday at the Pirelli Stadium in Burton, with a place in WSL 2 on the line for the winner. After a season of heartbreak, disappointment, and relentless determination, the team—and especially Morphet and her fellow captains—deserve to seize this moment and write the next chapter of their remarkable story.