Davies: Promotion is life-changing for Villa Women

Gemma Davies has hailed Aston Villa’s promotion to the FA Women’s Super League as ‘life-changing’.

The club were awarded the Championship title on Friday morning and will now begin planning for life in the top tier of women’s football.

Unbeaten Villa were six points clear when the league was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Head Coach Davies says today’s announcement is the realisation of a dream for her and her team.

She said: “We set the objective of being promoted this season but it’s a lot more than just earning promotion – it’s long-standing dreams and ambitions that are shared amongst the players and staff around going full-time and saying that they will be a professional football player or coach in the highest division of the women’s game.

“There was a lot more to it for us and today has been a lifechanging decision for many of us. That’s pretty awesome when you think about it and it goes beyond a 90-minute game or the 14 games that we’ve played.

“There’s a lot of work, tears, excitement and nervous energy that have gone into it over the last 18-month period.”

Promotion capped a remarkable end to Davies’ second season in charge, following up a sixth-place finish last term.

As a lifelong Villa fan, the 27-year-old is desperate to see the club compete against and beat the best teams in the country, and she’ll have her chance to do just that when the new season rolls around.

“This is only the start of our journey,” she said.

“When you’re at such a fantastic club, when you wear the shirt, when you step out onto a football pitch, you want to win. That’s everything that we embody.

“We want to win, we want to be competitive and we’re ambitious. That’s going to take time, but we want to go and win cups, we want to win leagues and I’m not shy about saying that.

“That’s something to dream about. This is the start of good things for this football club.”