AFC Fylde owner hopes to relaunch women's team but says spectators aren't interested

It is only last week that the Coasters confirmed the women’s team formed in 2016 was to fold as chairman Haythornthwaite felt compelled to reduce his investment in Mill Farm due to coronavirus.

Fylde Women played in the third tier of the English women’s game and their demise brought much adverse publicity as Haythornthwaite acknowledged: “I’ve been amazed by the furore.

“I’ve never had so many media people wanting my opinion. I was also attacked, quite unfairly in my view, on social media by various keyboard warriors”

However, in the latest of a series of video interviews posted on the club’s website, Haythornthwaite explained the problems of running the team but struck an optimistic note over its possible return.

“My vision was to build the Fylde brand. I set out from day one to treat the ladies no differently to the men’s team. I didn’t want them to be second-class citizens,” he said.

“Most ladies’ teams at our level never play at the same ground as the men’s team. I wanted to say that wherever possible they could use Mill Farm. This year they played at least 50 per cent of home games there.

“But everybody disappeared who said they would help out and it quickly went pear-shaped. The sponsor disappeared and pretty quickly I was picking up the tab.”

And Haythornthwaite says the lack of spectators made that tab more burdensome. “Conrad (Prendergast, manager) came along and we’ve run that team relatively successfully but it costs a lot of money, and despite everyone’s attempt to promote ladies’ football in my view its been unsuccessful.

“There has been a lot of money thrown at it but there isn’t that grassroots level of interest in ladies’ football. You are pushing water uphill to try to make it work. There is no appetite for it at a spectator level.

“We’re the only show in town on a Sunday afternoon. The other clubs nearby don’t have a ladies’ team and we were playing at a decent level against clubs like Sunderland, Derby and Nottingham Forest.

“We only charge a fiver and if you are a season ticket holder you get in free. But if we got 100 people ... and most of those were parents or relations.

“If everything’s going OK, you don’t mind and don’t look at the numbers. But when you are in a bad situation you look at every cost. The cost of running that team is close to £90,000 a year and there’s no income. We pay wages of around £4,000 a month. It’s not peanuts.

“We hadn’t been able to find any sponsorship – it’s hard enough on the men’s side.

“We had to make the choice: could we afford to pay £90,000 for something which, in my view, had little or no support.”

However, he is hopeful of turning the negative into a positive, adding: “Within two hours my phone was going and we had some proposals to continue.

“We’ll never make it completely cash-neutral – just to open up on a Sunday costs us £10,000-£15,000 – but if we can keep it within that region I’ll certainly be willing to look at continuing that ladies’ team.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to bring some good news because it would be good news. If we don’t have the ladies’ team we’ve failed, and if we can get this problem solved there will be no-one happier than me.”