AFC Sudbury players put club’s firmly section firmly on the national map with two ground-breaking trophies

In just 24 hours AFC Sudbury’s players put the club firmly on the national female football map with two major trophies to ensure 2022/23 will go down as the Yellows’ best ever when adding in the men’s promotion too.

Knowing victory at King’s Lynn Town on Sunday afternoon would seal a second successive title and promotion to the FA Women’s National League, Luke Mallett’s AFC Sudbury Women’s team left nothing to chance with four unanswered goals in a scintillating first half.

From there it was a procession to the finish line with substitute Ashtyn Newley adding some late icing on the cake to the two, including one direct from a corner, from Sophie Jeffery that came after Holly Kennard turned from provider for Miagh Downey to finisher for the second.

The 5-0 victory saw them complete their 20-game season in the Eastern Region Women’s Football League Premier Division eight points clear of Steveange who have one game remaining and 11 ahead of Luton Town who still have two to play. It was a 16th win of the campaign, having drawn once to leave just three defeats, scoring 69 goals and conceding 29 to leave a plus-40 goal difference.

The Ronni Harrison captained team, who continued their celebrations back at the Horse and Groom pub in East Street, can now look forward to facing Norwich City, QPR, Cambridge United and AFC Wimbledon in Tier 4.

But those celebrations were not able to get too wild for the majority of the side as they had the little matter of the final of the National Football Youth League Cup to play for on Monday afternoon at Loftus Road, home to QPR’s second tier men’s team.

And there was certainly no hangover from their league triumph as Harrison’s side came in 3-0 up at half-time against Northampton Town thanks to goals from Kennard, Sealey and Kate Edwards.

After conceding early in the second period four more unanswered goals followed for the Yellows to leave a 7-1 scoreline ahead of celebrating with their national cup – a new first for either the boy’s or girls academies at King’s Marsh.

Captain Harrison said the side’s togetherness had been the key ingredient that had ensured 2022/23 has been a season like no other for the club’s female section.

“To be honest we have barely dared to believe,” she said.

“After each of our wins we have come off the pitch absolutely buzzing, but we soon get back down to earth and have taken nothing for granted.

“We are such a tight group of friends, we belong together and that is the magic ingredient.

“We play for the love of the game and each other, and as CEO Patrick (Bell) puts it ‘our togetherness is what makes our team much bigger and better than the sum of its parts.’.”

Adrian Goodwin, the head of the club’s women’s section, said: “I cannot say the last five years have been easy.

“Women’s football across the planet, including at our club, has faced numerous growing pains. But we are winning!

“Our team has been winning and punching above its weight all season and will find ways to do the same next year.

“Our board of directors has backed us all the way and will do going forward, as do our sponsors.”

He added: “As Gabby Logan emotionally expressed in her closing link at the end of the 2022 European Championships, we don’t think it’s all over – this is just the start!

“It is up to progressive clubs like us to drive women’s football forward from the grassroots up.

“Our Suffolk market town may be sleepy in most respects, but we are proud to be ripping up the rule book and helping to reinvent the football hierarchy.”

After watching the women’s title triumph play out at The Walks stadium in King’s Lynn on Sunday, AFC Sudbury chairman Andrew Long was left beaming with admiration and pride.

Speaking ahead of the U21s’ national cup success being confirmed, he said: “It’s an absolutely amazing achievement for everyone involved in the women’s section who have worked tirelessly to get us to where they are.

“To think that they are now three steps below Chelsea and Manchester United or Manchester City is incomprehensible for a little club like ours.

“To think we’re now at the same level as Norwich City and in the same division, you just can’t imagine that having happened.

“At the beginning of the season I think we would have been happy to stay where we were, but to be the best in the league throughout is a huge achievement.

“I came back on the coach from King’s Lynn yesterday afternoon with the players and their families and the sheer joy was just wonderful to see, mixed with a tinge of ‘what on earth have we just done?’. It was almost disbelief.”

The club’s full-time CEO, Patrick Bell, added: “AFC Sudbury has spent the last five years quietly developing, supporting and rooting for our women’s section; and now that cautious, judicious investment has eclipsed our expectations.”

While the men’s team will be playing in the third tier of the Non-League pyramid, Sudbury’s women’s team will now be situated in the fourth tier in the country in the Women’s National League South East.

Manager Luke Mallett, speaking to the club’s media intern Isaac Mennie on Sunday, said: “Our target was never to go up, it was never mentioned. But as the season went on it became real and it is amazing by the whole group.”