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Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Rotherham United Ladies were formed as a youth club side in 1969, originally known as Kilnhurst Shooting Stars and women’s football was a minority sport with very few clubs in the area.
In the early 1970’s the club changed their name to Kilnhurst Ladies and joined the newly formed Sheffield and District Ladies Sunday league.
In 1989 the club became Millmoor Ladies. This was the first time they had links with Rotherham United. They provided the Ladies with a team kit and match reports in the club programme. The team moved into a higher league as the F.A began to develop a pyramid in women’s football. They finished runners up to Doncaster Belles in the opening season of the Yorkshire and Humberside league.
In 1999 the F.A developed the current pyramid of football, with the club successfully gaining a place in the Midland Combination League, the third highest league, under the name Parkgate.
In 2003 the team re-established links with Rotherham United and took their name.
During the subsequent seasons 2003 to 2006 Rotherham finished in the top three places but promotion eluded them.
Success finally came in season 2006-07 when they won the Midland Combination League, undefeated for the whole season in a new league record, and gained promotion to the Womens National League Northern Division, in which they now compete .
This league is the second tier of womens football.
The FA is pleased to announce that the application process for joining The FA Women’s Super League is now officially open. Packs with all relevant application information have now been released.