Dawn of new era for Plymouth Argyle Women with home matches being played at Home Park
Watch our report from Jacquie Bird
Plymouth Argyle women are set to play as many games as possible this season at Home Park in what’s being seen as a new era for the women’s game.
The club’s new Head of Women’s Football Operations believes with the women’s game growing so fast at the moment it will lead to many sides turning professional.
Last season the Plymouth women’s side played most of their games on pitches across Devon and Cornwall, attracting crowds of around 200.
Moving most of those games to Home Park will attract larger crowds, and importantly for the players mean they get that feeling of playing in a major stadium.
Plymouth Argyle women’s captain Giota Papaioannou said: “We see it in the crowds, you’ve got Arsenal selling out every time they play at The Emirates, Southampton is another example of their women’s team playing every home game at their main stadium.
"It’s something we will try and do here as much as possible and we’re grateful to the club for allowing us to play more games at Home Park this season.”
From 1 July next year the women’s team came under the umbrella of the main club rather than Argyle's Community Trust.
They’ve also appointed someone with specialist knowledge to run it. Joanne Moseley, the new head of Women's Football Operations joins from Tottenham Hotspur, with a background in the women's game at the FA .
She said: “The women’s game is growing at a rapid rate, it’s on an exponential curve. I think in the next few years we're going to really see teams start to professionalise.
"We're in Tier three, so we're one of the top 48 teams in the country of about 12,000 women's teams. So Plymouth Argyle has got a really strong team and we just want to keep developing both the players, the staff and we've got fantastic support from Plymouth Argyle to do that.”
Argyle currently play in the equivalent of League 1 in the women's leagues, but their aspirations are high.
Full time head coach Ryan Perks hopes their new status will stand them in good stead. He said: “I think if you've got players interested in coming to the club, you bring them to the stadium and it's a nice place to play football.
"So yeah, it just entices the players to want to come and play for Plymouth Argyle.”