Full name | Reading Football Club Women |
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Nickname(s) | The Royals, RFCW |
Founded | 2006 |
Ground | Adams Park |
Capacity | 9,617 |
Director of football | Kelly Chambers |
First team manager | Kelly Chambers |
League | FA WSL 1 |
2016 | 8th |
Website | Club home page |
Reading Football Club Women is an English women's football club affiliated with Reading FC. The club currently play in FA WSL 1. The club played in the FA Women's Premier League National Division after being promoted from the FA Women's Premier League Southern Division, which they were relegated to at the end of the 2011–12 season. They had previously won promotion to the National Division from the Southern Division in 2009–10. They gained entry to an expanded FA WSL in 2014.
Reading FC began an association with women's football when it affiliated with Reading Royals LFC (previously Twyford Comets) in 1988.
In May 2006, Reading ended this affiliation and started their own women's team, Reading FC Women. In their first season they achieved a Southern Region Women's Football League and Cup double and were promoted to the South West Combination Women's Football League. They followed this with an unbeaten 2007–08 League season to gain promotion to the Premier League Northern Division (in which they competed due to an overload at the Southern).
After finishing sixth in the Northern Division, Reading were transferred to the Southern Division for the 2009–10 season. In 2010 they won their last four games of the season to finish runners–up to Barnet and secure promotion to the FA Women's Premier League National Division.
On 3 April 2011 Reading successfully defended the Berks and Bucks County Cup trophy, cruising past Milton Keynes Dons 3–0 in the final.
Their first season in the FA Women's Premier League National Division (the second highest league, following the formation of the Women's Super League) saw Reading finish third. In March 2012 Reading lost top goalscorer Nikki Watts to WSL club Bristol Academy. They finished 9th in the National Division in the 2011–12 season, resulting in their relegation back to the Southern Division for 2012–13.