WCWFC | Dare To Dream

As the club celebrates its fifth anniversary, we sat down with owner Nicole Allison to reflect on the past five years and look ahead to what lies ahead.

Back in 2021, Nicole Allison’s dream came to fruition as she took ownership of Worcester City Women, which, by her own admission, was a big risk, but equally a big reward.

The club became an independently owned women’s football club that has not only empowered women and girls on the pitch, but has also inspired a community in the heart of a City that has shown care, love, support and passion for a football club they now call ‘their own’.

Looking back to when she took over the club. Did Nicole imagine the club would turn out how it is today, and why did she decide to start this journey?

“I think it was after years of working in the football industry for nearly fifteen years, men’s football, women’s football, and really having a strong belief that we could do things differently.

An opportunity to rebuild structures, lead differently, and I think that was really important for something where we were trying to develop an independent club structure and of course I’m from Worcester, born and bred here and even though I spent many years living in London throughout my football career of working in the business side of football, coming back here and having an opportunity to develop something and leave a lasting legacy on a city I’m so passionate about really was where this all started."

“Initially, I imagined it as being a National League club, so our first sort of three-year strategy from year one was to become a National League club, and we achieved that within those three years.

She added. “There were certainly some curve balls along the way and some twists and turns, but ultimately, we had a mission, and we achieved that, so yes, it is, but now is a good time to re-imagine how we want our club to look over the next five to ten years.

Independent clubs in Women’s football hadn’t really had an opportunity at that point to prove that it could be sustainable, that it could thrive.

It was a big risk for me personally. I left something that was very reliable and sustainable for me to actually build something that I really had to kind of put my entire belief and kind of dreams against, really, but what the biggest would have been not doing something and actually not seeing the change in the city and the county that we have already and what we will certainly see in the future. Big risks, but certainly big rewards.”

Nicole also shared that her overriding emotion was pride, after seeing the club go from strength to strength on and off the pitch, including a historic first season in the Women’s FA National League after securing National League safety in Worcester’s 3-3 draw at Barnsley in April 2025.

She said: “I think the overriding emotion is pride, you know, from what we’ve become and what we’ve built, it’s been a real team effort and when I think about over the last five years, the players that have developed us, the coaches who have gone through this journey with us, the volunteers who give up their time because they care so passionately about this club, to then the fans who are in the stands here at Sixways, but also following us on the road who really believe that this is their club, that’s something I’m incredibly proud of.

I think also an emotion is gratitude for the people that have backed me, partners that have supported this journey because without them we couldn’t have done that and for all of the people that have really felt part of this journey and supported through thick and thin because there have been challenges, there have been tough times, but everyone’s been resilient and I think what makes this club so special is the togetherness from players, staff, volunteers, all the people that are involved, so a huge sense of gratitude.

I think finally it’s ambition, because five years doesn’t feel like it’s a sort of stop gap and a time to sort of reflect on what we have achieved, it’s more about actually what we’re going to achieve. So, a huge sense of excitement because we’ve only really just begun.”

She added: “There are moments every week when I feel like this is special and that often happens at the end of a game at Sixways, win, lose, or draw, seeing the fans, seeing the players interacting with all different generations of fans really make me smile and think about how special this is because you really do see from a fan perspective all of the different generations of families that come and follow.

I think if I had to pick three key moments, there was an FA Cup game away to Rotherham in November 2023, we won 5-0, and we had a great following of fans travel all the way up to Rotherham, which was amazing to see. We won so convincingly against a club that has an EFL club behind it was really something special.

Then it was a moment in the summer, actually, where we celebrated our first anniversary of Kick & Mix and Kick & Connect. We had a social with all of the participants that play within that, and just seeing how much they get from partaking in Kick & Mix and the Kick & Connect and then becoming fans of the club and being part of that community was a really special feeling.

Then, from this season, the Kidderminster game at home, our Halloween special, nearly 500 people here, face painting, Pablo, fancy dress competition, it just really felt like it was all of the best of Worcester City Women. Yes, great that we won, got the three points, but it was also about the fan engagement and the match experience and the positivity that I get from that, the comments that I get from people about how they had a great time, and we’ve inspired people, that’s really special.”

Nicole also discussed what changes over the past five years she has seen for opportunities for women in football and shared her vision on where she sees the club in the next five years.

She said, “I think it’s grown tremendously. The opportunities compared to when I was growing up there weren’t any opportunities. Doors were pretty much closed, and I had to go and really push them open.

We’ve certainly started to see now more opportunities for women in football and women in sport more generally, different roles, and I’m really proud of the gender diversity that we have at the club, from board level, to the coaches, to the media team, it’s something that we’ve really focused on and therefore what we’re really proud of.

As a club, we’re determined to create opportunities and really kind of guide the way and lead in the sense of how we can create opportunities not just for women, but for male allies as well, and that’s a really important part of our ambition and mission at the club”

She added, “The ambition is clear. We want to be operating at a higher level of the football pyramid in this country. We want to have full-time players, coaches, and operate in an elite performance setting, high performance setting.

We want to have a commercially sustainable model, and we want to really lead the way with how an independent women’s football club can run and not just survive, but thrive.

For me winning and promotion isn’t what defines success, it’s about the impact that we have on the community, on our people, so ultimately I see scale over the next five years, but I also see substance and that’s about actually as a club how we can impact and make a real positive change for women’s football in the region and we’ve already started that journey, but we’ve got a lot more of exciting things to come”

Whether you’ve been a player, a member of staff, a volunteer, a sponsor or a fan, thank you from everybody at Worcester City Women for your support since this journey began. Here’s to the next five years! Up the City!!