“I absolutely love my role, I think it’s absolutely brilliant” states City’s Head of Women’s Football Aliyah Anthony as she reflects on her role within the club, “I live and breathe (Oxford) City, if you cut me my blood would be blue!”.
Back in May, Anthony was promoted from Women’s First Team Manager to Head of Women’s Football and has overseen huge developments at the club since.
“I want to take City as far as I can, I want us to be the most popular girls' teams in Oxford”.
Anthony’s ambitions have already made an impact throughout the club, from the First Team down to younger girls' sides, with the former First Team manager reflecting on the importance of bringing in girls who don’t have the opportunity to play much football and ensuring that they enjoy it.
This will in turn strengthen the pathway from youth football into the senior teams at City, benefiting the club greatly in the long run.
In relation to the First and Development squads, Anthony described the new coaches Connor Walton and Chris Smith as “phenomenal” as their impact has allowed both teams to climb the table, and the dream of promotion in the next few seasons seems evermore likely.
The First Team currently sit in fourth place, just two points behind Woodley United, a comparable difference to them finishing in the bottom half of the table last season.
“Connor being first team manager, he’s quite young, so it's brought a lot of youth into the squad and a lot of great ideas”. She also praised his enthusiasm and communication within the squad which has played such a huge role in their success.
With reference to Smith taking over the development side, Anthony stated that “some of the girls in the squad weren’t really enjoying football. Chris is so enthusiastic he’s brought that out of them, and he’s done absolutely fantastic to get the squad where they are at the moment”.
To reinforce this, Smith has transformed the side that narrowly avoided relegation last season into a competitive squad that currently sits in third and has taken all three points in some big fixtures this season.
The success of both the First and Development squads demonstrates the impact that Anthony has already had in her role, but she has voiced plenty of longer-term aims and ambitions.
Looking into the future, “I would love for the First Team to go to the National League [...] It’s a massive goal and it’s something that I’m hoping we can achieve”.
To help push this goal further, the club is looking to bring in new coaches, including a goalkeeping coach and assistant coaches for both the First and Development squads.
Anthony highlighted that she isn’t just looking to bring in coaches but to develop them too as she believes that staff growth is just as important as that of the players.
Anthony isn’t only focused on developing the First and Development squads, however, but also the youth sides within the club. Since her promotion, she has nearly doubled the number of girls teams at City and doesn’t plan on stopping there.
“It’s not about winning every game, it’s about developing [...] seeing their smiles and how much they enjoy football is absolutely fantastic, that’s what makes my job enjoyable”, she stated about the younger players at the club.
“I absolutely love girls’ football, I love the fact that they’re getting into it and I love the fact that they’re playing for my club”.
So it is clear to see that, although on a surface level it may seem like Anthony’s role only affects the senior sides, her impact at the club extends far beyond this, and “soon the goal for anyone who gets involved in football will be to come to Oxford City”.
Comments