Last season the Wolves Women were locked in a fierce battle for promotion to the second tier of the Women’s Super League, and heading into the final match they still held a mathematical chance of finishing ahead of league leaders Nottingham Forest. What the squad did not realise was that their hopes were doomed from the start. The club’s promotion application, which should have been lodged in February, was never submitted.
Although the team satisfied every technical criterion, the board concluded that the demands of a full‑time programme were simply too great for the club at that moment. Even head coach Dan McNamara was unaware of the oversight until it was too late.
After the final game the players learned the disappointing news in the dressing‑room. For captain Anna Morphet, the moment remains a painful memory.
“It was a shock, complete disbelief. A flood of emotions. I remember not knowing what to say, so I said very little and just tried to absorb it,” she recalled.
In the days that followed the squad took to social media to voice their frustration. One player spoke of feeling let down, another insisted they deserved better treatment. The lack of transparency and perceived absence of support sparked anger and prompted a broader conversation about how the club communicates with its athletes.
The episode served as a wake‑up call for the entire organisation. Fast forward a year, and Wolves Women find themselves once again on the brink of promotion. The overdue application has finally been filed, and the atmosphere around the club has shifted dramatically.
Morphet describes the previous season’s ordeal as an "incredibly tough moment" but also as a galvanising experience. "Those kinds of challenges bring a group closer together.
You look around and realise how special the characters in this team are. If we hadn’t built that closeness before we heard the news, I don’t think we would have come through as strongly as we have," she said. She also expressed empathy for McNamara, who had to deliver the crushing announcement. "For Macca, who has poured his heart into this club for years, to be the one to break the news – I know he would never try to shift the blame.
I can’t imagine how hard that was for him," Morphet added. McNamara, visibly moved when reflecting on that night, described it as one of the toughest things he has ever had to say. A former Royal Air Force serviceman, he leaned on his military background to navigate the emotional test of leadership.
"When I first got the news I was emotional. Part of me wanted to tell the girls immediately and let the whole thing explode, maybe even have them skip the final games of the season," he admitted. "Instead, I kept the information to myself until after the last match. We decided the players deserved to enjoy that final victory together before we brought them back down to earth.
If we had broken the news earlier it would have been horrendous." He also revealed that he never imagined he would manage Wolves again. "I could have walked away, but I couldn’t abandon the girls.
They asked, ‘Should we give the club another chance? Do we want to go elsewhere?’ The consensus was to stay together." The question lingered: would the team dissolve, or would this become a watershed moment leading to greater things?
"Thankfully it has been the latter," McNamara said. One year later, promotion is now a single game away, and the club feels prepared. Wolves have dominated the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier Division, winning 20 of 22 matches and finishing as the league’s highest‑scoring side. Yet that dominance was not enough for automatic promotion; they fell just one point short of Burnley and missed the title on the final day.
"We do feel a little hard done by," McNamara conceded, but his overriding feeling is pride in how the squad responded. "They have performed unbelievably well, despite moments of disrespect and adversity. They represent this club and this city with the utmost professionalism." Chairperson Jenny Wilkes, a local radio personality who joined the club in 1999 at the invitation of Wolves legend John Richards, describes the journey as a roller‑coaster. She founded a limited company to secure sponsorship, with help from former England cricketer Rachel Heyhoe‑Flint, and witnessed the early struggles of women’s football first‑hand.
"One of the players’ fathers worked in road‑building machinery. He would bring his equipment down to the pitch and level a huge divot until it was just sand – that was the condition of our home ground back then," Wilkes reminisced. "Players paid their own subscriptions, the captain collected cash on training nights, and we even had to bargain for kits at cost price." Those hardships have given way to a markedly different reality. "It is a much different place now.
This is the closest we have ever been to the top tier, and better communication with technical director Matt Jackson has helped us see things in a new light," she noted. The emotional low of last season could have been followed by the highest of highs. Wilkes has endured near‑misses before – a promotion push halted by the pandemic and a play‑off defeat to Southampton – as well as the gut‑wrenching disappointment of the previous year.
Nevertheless, the prospect of promotion to the second tier of the Women’s Super League feels transformative. It would mean the club could turn fully professional, a shift that would affect every player, staff member, and supporter.
McNamara acknowledges the logistical challenge. "If we get promoted we have an extremely short window to completely overhaul the club’s structure," he explained. "For many of the players, this is the dream they have chased all their lives.
To play a part in making that dream a reality would mean the world to me." Morphet herself 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 possibility of a full‑time football career would be seismic for her and her teammates.
"We know promotion can be life‑changing," she said. "When you look at where we are now it feels crazy that we got here, but we have emerged in a completely different light." After eight years and nearly 200 appearances, Morphet describes Wolves Women as her "home away from home." The chance to finally focus solely on football, after balancing another job with professional‑level training, could finally be rewarded. "Deep down I always knew I would never give myself the best chance to achieve the ultimate football dream – full‑time – without making sacrifices.
The amount of sacrifice we’ve all made tells me something good is on the horizon," she reflected. Now the team stands at that crossroads, preparing to face Plymouth on Monday at the Pirelli Stadium in Burton.
The winner secures a place in WSL 2, and the Wolves Women are ready to ride the roller‑coaster once more, hoping to claim the moment they have fought so hard for.