Manchester United promoted to Women's Super League

Manchester United
Manchester United have been utterly dominant in the Women’s Championship Credit: PA

Manchester United have been promoted to the FA Women's Super League after beating Aston Villa 5-0. A Millie Turner header, penalty from captain Alex Greenwood and goal from Jess Sigworth put Casey Stoney’s team 3-0 up at half-time before Ella Toone and Charlie Devlin added to their tally after the break.

The only full-time team in the Women’s Championship, a semi-professional division, United have won 15 of their 17 league games since their reformation in May last year - eleven months ago - and their only defeat in the second tier came at Durham in December. They lost that game 3-1 but it was a merely minor blip in a league campaign that began with a 12-0 demolition of Villa and has largely continued in that vein. With three league games remaining, they have scored 81 league goals and conceded just seven.

United’s promotion is subject to meeting the WSL licensing criteria, which demands that clubs offer a minimum of 16 contact hours per week and run an academy. An FA spokesperson said: “At this moment in time we do not foresee any issues and will be confirming the outcome mid-May.”

United are eight points ahead of their closest rivals and remain favourites for the title. Their final three games are against the division’s bottom three in Crystal Palace, Millwall and Lewes. Spurs are favourites to secure the second promotion spot but Durham and Charlton are also in contention.

United will likely recruit in the summer ahead of their first season in the top tier, not least because promotion will mean their first Manchester derby against City, second in the WSL.

United’s results against top-tier sides this season have yielded four wins: they beat WSL strugglers Everton 3-0 in the League Cup in December, West Ham 2-0 in the same competition the following month and Brighton by the same scoreline in the FA Cup in February. They lost 2-0 to Reading in August but beat Liverpool 1-0 earlier that month.

They were knocked out of the FA Cup quarter-finals by Reading, losing 3-2, but may have felt slightly aggrieved when they were knocked out of the League Cup by Arsenal in February after a 2-1 away defeat. 

United’s place in the second division has drawn criticism given the extent of their resources compared to clubs like Crystal Palace, whose players all have full-time jobs, or Aston Villa, where players have had to pay for their own medical treatment.

In November, Stoney defended their place in the second tier, saying: “We’re full-time, I do appreciate that, and all the other teams aren’t, but I actually think it was a sensible decision by the club to go the way we’ve gone.

“Because let’s be honest, we didn’t know what we were going to be able to recruit in a very, very short space of time. We had three weeks to build a team, put staff in place and get everything in place. We never knew what was going to be able to happen to do that. We’re a very young team and we’re still growing. People criticise us, but half of our squad is WSL 2 players. It’s not as if they’re playing in a league dropping down. I don’t ever feel bad.”

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