Colin Reid opens up in his first press conference since becoming Millwall Lionesses boss

Following the split of the old Millwall Lionesses team where they became the London City Lionesses, the new Millwall women’s team have since taken to rebranding and will be playing much lower down in the footballing pyramid.

Lionesses manager Colin Reid gave his first press conference since joining the London based club earlier on in this month and he had his eyes set on one thing:

“I am going to be upfront and I don’t mind saying it I want to get promoted. I want to win that league and I have said to the girls that this is the challenge that I have put out to them. I want to win the league, by scoring the most goals and conceding the least and giving people a problem.”

Reid has a lot of confidence in his style of play and from the offset believes that his girls can perform to his standards:

“I want them to play with a freedom and I want them to go express themselves and that means playing from the back and I will take responsibility we have already had a couple of friendlies where we have given silly goals away and I have said don’t worry keep doing it and we need to get better at it but that is my responsibility.

“You are going to see an attractive game and I want to know that when the players come and watch us play they are going to see a brand of football that they can identify with from on the tele from the women’s World Cup or from the game they have watched from the evening before on the box.”

The Lionesses will be starting off in the sixth tier of the women’s game after seeing their Championship licence handed to the London City Lionesses, the new Millwall boss spoke about the situation:

“Firstly I would say we are grateful for being accepted for where we are at, we have to deal with that and like I have said to the players and any players that have come in, we are where we are, so we are grateful for that opportunity and we want to push back to where we rightfully want to be and should be.

“Like they say you have got no rights in football so for us we have to earn the right to get back to where we want to be, and we will be doing everything we can to get ourselves to where we need to be.”

Many people believe that the women’s game is changing and Colin Reid is no different, with sharing his optimistic evaluation on the game:

“I think with high profile people like (Phil) Neville in charge it has added a lot and I think the women’s game now is growing massively and I think it is a golden opportunity for girls that want to get involved in football, there is sponsorship coming in from all over and we have got our sponsorship, and it is good to see that we are being backed by the same people that are backing the first team.

“Girls in women’s football are at a great stage and I think because of the publicity that has been generated and that we have done I think it is massive, I can continually see it growing, I can see investors and sponsorship filtering down to the lower levels because I believe that is what we need.”

With more female pundits than ever on the television after the women’s world cup this year in France, the Millwall boss believes that change is happening:

“I think what is being done in the social media, the very fact that now when you look at football on the tele whether that is more females doing the presenting it’s being out there and being open to see and think it needs to be put on the television more which it is.

“There are particular programmes that are based around women’s football and I think it just needs more exposure because of the good work that you have seen at the world cup and how well we have done, girls are now wanting to play football, parents are going to go and watch and the quality of football is improving and I think it is about the quality.”

Having spent last season as the technical director of  Millwall’s ‘The Regional Talent Club’, the Millwall manager has a clear image of what he wants the game to look like in the future:

“This would be a dream in terms of women’s football why not have like you have got the 92 clubs now, why not and I am saying it would be the challenge forever.

“It might not be 92 but if we can get it to half of that and grow the women’s league and maybe have three or four divisions then that is what we have got to aim for in this country and it is about the product for me, produce better players, filter the money down into coaches and coach education and get the quality up their and that is what I look forward to happening in the next five tens years in women’s football.”

Following their inclusion in the Eastern Region Women’s Football League Division One, the club have decided that they will make all of their home matches this season free to watch after they moved back to their old home (St Paul’s Sports Ground in Rotherhithe)

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