‘The joy of our 50,000 euro penalty’

Still basking in the glory of Bristol Academy’s Champion’s League win over the mighty Barcelona at the end of last year, Simon Fry meets the daddy of women’s football in the city, Mark Humphrey.

“That penalty kick was worth 50,000 euros, and the 10 minutes after were the longest 10 minutes of my life!”

Mark Humphrey, centre of excellence manager at Bristol Academy Women’s Football Club, is recalling the highlight of his involvement with them, a 2-1 aggregate win over Barcelona, in the Women’s Champions League’s before 2,457 spectators at Ashton Gate in November.   

Before kick-off in the second leg he was to be seen, in his own words, “suited and booted”, shaking hands everywhere he went like the proud father at a gigantic wedding. 

Two weeks later he sits in the impressive boardroom of the club’s recently-opened Sports Academy building, with its Sir Alan Sugar-style chairs and balcony overlooking the pitch. A tracksuit has replaced the tailoring, but doubtless his smile has been worn ever since Nikki Watts sent the Vixens into the quarter finals and their fans into raptures. 

His journey began in 2001, when his daughters, aged 10 and 12, attended a Bristol Rovers community fun day, attracting Rovers’ Debbie Arrowsmith, who suggested they attend trials for Bristol Rovers Women’s FC’s Centre of Excellence.

Both made the grade, and Mark helped out by driving the minibus and providing first aid until elevation to a reserve team role. By 2005 he was assistant to first team manager Gary Green as the ‘Gas Girls’ finished fifth in the FA Women’s Premier League.

Reality was less glamorous, Mark recalling matches played at Almondsbury “in front of 40 or 50 people, most of whom were parents. Those were tough times.”

The start of the 2005-6 season saw the formation of Bristol Academy WFC under a new partnership with the then Filton College (now South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.)

In the years that followed, Mark combined managing a loft conversion company, spending more than three decades in the building trade, with a voluntary role at the club, sometimes committing 30 hours weekly.

A shake-up in summer 2009 saw him make a move. “Between managers Gary Green and Mark Sampson I’d sort of left for a few weeks but Mark contacted me and asked me to help take things forward, and I’d missed being involved so it was an easy decision to make.”

On the field the club finished bottom of the table at the end of the 2009-10 season, from where the only way was up.

The female game nationally was also to receive a boost. “The FA formed the Women’s Super League (WSL) to stop home players going to the USA. Our college’s principal, Kevin Hamblin, singlehandedly put forward our licence application.”

Around the time of the team’s 2011 Women’s FA Cup Final defeat to Arsenal before 13,885 fans at Coventry’s Ricoh Stadium, Mark gained his first (part-time) paying role, managing its Centre of Excellence, a programme aimed at producing international players.

The subsequent move to a full-time position has included taking on responsibility for the club’s Skills Centre, giving grassroots clubs’ players access to Centre of Excellence training and today he, along with Bristol Academy WFC manager Dave Edmondson, oversees the pathway of about 180 girls and women from under-nine to first-team levels.

National endorsement came this year when he was appointed education and welfare officer for the FA’s Girls’ England Talent Pathway Elite Performance Camps.

“The whole thing for me has been seeing young people develop, first my children, then other young people,” he says.

“At our WSL award evening Natasha Harding, who is joining Washington Spirit (20 miles from Washington, DC) made a very emotional speech, thanking all at the club. She told the room if they cut me in half I would have Bristol Academy running through me. This was thanks for all the times I’ve helped her and put my family to one side. It was a very nice thing for her to say and it meant a lot to me.”

Tickets for the home leg of the Champions League quarter-final vs FFC Frankfurt at Ashton Gate on Saturday, March 21 are now on sale. Visit www.bristolacademywfc.co.uk/news/champions_league_tickets.html.

Pictures: Jon Craig