Championship Team Preview: Southampton

Megan Collett, Emma Thompson and other Saints celebrating a goal at a southcoast derby. Photo: Saints FC Women

Southampton Football Club is located in the heart of Southampton. Southampton FC Women was founded 8 years ago in 2017, not to be confused with Southampton Women’s FC, which was founded in 1970.

The club reached the women’s championship in the FA Women’s National League South in 2022 under manager Marieanne Spacey-Cale, who has been the team's manager since the beginning.

In the 2018/19 season, the club played in the southern region premier division, which they won with a perfect record of 18 wins from 18 games. This earned them promotion to the FA Women’s National League Division 1.

They also achieved the domestic double this season by beating Oxford City Women in the league cup.

In both the 19/20 season and the 20/21 season, the club was top of the FA Women's National League Division 1 Southwest at the point when football was shut down due to the COVID outbreak.

Allowing the club to apply for forward movement which they were granted leading to the history-making 21/22 season where the club won the FA Women's National League Southern Premier Division, which allowed them to move into the playoff final against the winner of the FA WNL Northern Premier Division.

On May 21st 2022 Southampton earned their first ever promotion to the 2nd tier of women's football, the Women's Championship, by defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0.

Following their promotion, the club made the decision that all women's first-team home games would be played at St Marys when possible and in their first season of the Championship they came 6th, with the next season just falling short in 4th position.

The current 24/25 season has been rocky for the Saints as for the first time ever, had a change in management, with Mariaenne Spacey-Cale moving to head of women's and girls' football and new and upcoming manager Remi Allen taking charge.

However, this season has not gone the way the club wanted, with the club currently sitting 8th after many disappointing results. More recently, Remi Allen has been sacked due to the poor form of the club, while Marieanne Spacey-Cale has come back in charge of the remaining part of the season as the club find a suitable replacement that will allow the team to truly succeed next season and prove they are a team to be worried about.

Three key players to watch out for in the Southampton team are :

Club captain Jemma Purfield, who joined in 2023 and became a huge part of the team, missed only one game in the 23/24 season. This allowed for her WSL experiences to show along with her expertise, allowing her to be a brick wall in defense. Jemma was then announced as captain of the Saints before the 24/25 season, allowing her true leadership to shine.

Another player to watch out for in the Southampton side is right back and young lioness Megan Collet. At only 19 years old, Megan Collet has truly proved her place at Southampton football club. She started truly showing her talent in the 22/23 season, making 22 appearances and carrying on through the 23/24 season, making 20 appearances and, more recently, making 18 appearances in the current season with both scoring against club rivals Portsmouth.

Attacker Rianna Dean is another to watch out for this season. A player on track to fight for top goalscorer before an injury has stumped her season. With 7 appearances this season, Rianna has scored 5 goals, with one being a long-range rocket that was in contention for championship goal of the month back in September.

Some upcoming fixtures that you should look out for in the last part of the season for the Saints are:

The final South Coast derby of the season as Southampton play Portsmouth for the third time this season, with previous meetings leading to 5-0 and 4–0 wins for the Saints, with both these games being played away at Portsmouth's home grounds. Now with a home advantage, Southampton are trying to beat their attendance record of just over 13,000 while they hopefully paint Hampshire red once again.

Another fixture to look out for is the Saints' final game of the season against Charlton Athletic at St Mary’s. The club made history this season as they beat Charlton for the first time since playing each other in the championship with a 1-0 scoreline thanks to a goal from defender Tara Bourne. This makes the replay of this game an interesting one indeed.