Hannah Dingley becomes the first woman to take charge of an English Football League club in pre-season match at Melksham Town.
It was a historic day for football in Melksham on Tuesday 4th July when Hannah Dingley became the first woman to manage a men’s professional team when she led out her Forest Green Rovers team in a pre-season match against Melksham Town.
The game, at Town’s Oakfield Stadium, attracted national media attention with the BBC, ITV, Sky News and a host of national newspapers all covering the match.
Chairman of Melksham Town Football Club, Darren Perrin said, “It was an historic day for the whole of football and fantastic that it happened here in Melksham.
“From the moment the news broke about Hannah’s appointment, my phone and the club’s phone went crazy. We had Reuters News (a reporter came from Paris), Sky Sports News, BBC Points West, ITV, The Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Times, Kiss Radio, Talksport, just to name a few who were going to be in attendance.
“During the game the team produced a brilliant performance to draw 1 v 1 with their Division 2 counterparts and I know that the Town manager and his staff were very impressed with the performance. Again, we had a very healthy crowd of 696.”
Forest Green Rovers appointed Hannah Dingley as interim head coach following the departure of Duncan Ferguson, who was appointed manager in January but was unable to prevent the team from being relegated to League 2.
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