HANNAH DINGLEY’S first taste of working in professional football was making the tea.
But on Wednesday night she broke down gender barriers by becoming the first woman to manage a professional English men’s team with Forest Green Rovers.
Hannah Dingley took charge of Forest Green in the friendly draw at MelkshamRex
The caretaker-boss makes a point as she also makes historyReuters
Dingley shakes hands with match officials on her momentous nightRex
For the first time ever in the English senior men’s game, a women had the main managerial role for a teamRex
It may have only been as a caretaker-boss in a 1-1 friendly draw at non-league West Country neighbours Melksham Town — but it broke through a football glass ceiling and was a victory for equality in our national game.
Dingley has already been a trailblazer for women in football — having previously been a first-team coach at Hinckley and assistant-manager of Gresley.
And four years ago Forest Green owner Dale Vince made her the first woman to run a professional club’s academy.
Dingley is well tuned to working with men and always quickly cuts through lazy gender stereotypes and commands full respect.
She told SunSport: “I’ve seen it all. Fights on the pitch, fights off the pitch, handbags all over the place, lots of shouting and swearing at one another, someone having a sulk and storming off.
“But I must say everyone has been accepting and welcoming of me in the game.
“I’ve learned that at first there is that feeling of, ‘Oh, she is a woman’ because of unconscious biases.
“But once I speak, the men all realise I know what I’m talking about. That’s what it’s all about. If you know your stuff, you’ll succeed – whether you’re a man or woman.”
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Dingley grew up in South Wales and started playing football with her older brother and other boys from the age of five — and played in school teams.
But she had to give up playing at age 11 because girls were prohibited from being in boys’ teams and there were no girls’ sides in her local area under the age of 16.
She said: “Girls played hockey and netball and boys football and rugby. That’s the way it was — but I still loved the game and went to watch the boys, although I wasn’t allowed to join in.”
And incredibly the only way she was able to get back into football was on work experience at Swansea City … making brews for the backroom staff!
But it was there where she decided to pursue a career in football.
She said: “I was just 14 and caught the bug. Swansea were still playing at The Vetch. I spent Monday to Friday working as an office junior — sticking envelopes and making the tea.
“But I got to watch a first-team session. John Hollins was the manager. I’d see The Vetch empty on a Wednesday but then would see it bouncing on a Saturday and it just gave me a buzz. I wanted to work in football.”
Although Dingley resumed playing aged 16 for Carmarthen Town, she went on to do a BTEC in Football Studies – and was the only girl on her college course in Llanelli.
You want people to see others as people – rather than a boy or girl, black or white, gay or straight.
Hannah Dingley
She then got a degree in PE and sports sciences at Loughborough University, obtained a number of coaching badges and coached both men’s, women’s and boys’ and girls’ teams.
And she steadily worked her way up from coaching at Loughborough FC to head of coaching at Burton before pitching up at Forest Green.
Dingley’s elevation to managing the men’s team should come as no surprise as chairman Dale Vince has always expressed his desire to one day appoint a female head coach.
But the Rovers caretaker-boss hopes that she is doing her own little bit in breaking down gender barriers in football.
She said: “You want people to see others as people — rather than a boy or girl, black or white, gay or straight.
“We need football club owners to think, ‘What can this person bring to my organisation?’ There shouldn’t be any barriers saying, just because I’m a woman, I can’t go into men’s football.
“I’ve always been single minded and never let anyone stop me pursuing what I wanted to do.
“Forest Green’s ground is on a road called ‘Another Way’. When I first came here, my Sat Nav said, ‘Turn on to Another Way’ — I found that exciting and here I am today.”
ReutersDingley watches on during a draw in which midfielder Callum Jones, on loan from Hull City, scored for her Forest Green side[/caption]
Rovers’ chairman Dale Vince has promoted Dingley to caretaker-managerRex
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