Godfrey Williams' dedication to women's football | OneFootball

In the late summer of 1988, a range of City in the Community tournaments sparked a chain of events which eventually led to the formation of our original Women’s team.

Organised by Neil Mather, who would eventually form Manchester City Ladies, the women’s-only five-a-side competitions held at Platt Lane led to discussions and a statement of intent for a squad on 16 September 1988.

Unbeknownst to him at the time, those Community events began Godfrey Williams’ long, committed association with the side who he would impressively coach and fundraise for in the years that followed.

As part of our Black History Month 2024 celebration he revealed a turn of fate coinciding with his love of football saw him join the team's staff.

“It was just by chance, really,” Williams explained.

“I was working for the Community programme and Neil Mather decided to organise a women's football tournament at Platt Lane.

“And all the coaches that were around had to be referees and the standard was pretty decent.

“I just looked around and watched it and then after that tournament it went really well. He [Mather] decided to do a women's football team.

WATCH: Onuoha and Wright-Phillips reflect on their inspirations

“It just started from there. Then we got some games going. I was still playing football at the time, but in the mornings with my local team.

“I just love football and just wanted to do it and so I just got more and more involved in the coaching set up and then going and watching when I finished playing football.

“Going to support Neil up at Wythenshawe University grounds and things like that and it just cracked on and I just enjoyed the coaching.

“You should have seen the sheer volume of people who wanted to play. Just local girls. And then you just push from there. And Neil just got us going.

“I joined them in 1989, just in just beginning '89 and he had the competition around 89 and then the women's the first game was in 1990.”

Shortly after forming, a women’s City side first took to the pitch and recorded an historic 4-1 win over Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park in November 1988.

However, for Williams, our first competitive win over Manchester United just shy of two years later still provides fond memories for our former coach.

In what was Mather’s side’s second season and William’s first as official assistant in the North West Women’s Regional Football League Division Two, the Blues recorded a 4-3 win at the Wythenshawe University Ground.

Goals from Rhoda Taylor, Rachel O’Shaughnessy, Jenny Newton and Lesley Peters secured the wonderful win which Williams says provided precious vindication for the players and staff.

He recalled: “The first derby was a big one when we played Manchester United at the University ground.

“We won 4-3 and Manchester United were more established than City and most of the girls who played for them were there before City started. And then we came into the fold.

“We joined the league they were in and then the first derby up there at the university ground was very good and to win it was brilliant.

WATCH: When Nedum Onuoha met Stan Horne

“That game was intense. It was nervous, but we got the win out of the game and it was great for the girls, great for the set-up, great for Neil - brilliant.”

The victory over Manchester United maintained the team’s strong momentum which saw City win promotion at the end of the 1990/91 term.

However, it represented Mathers’ last at the helm before Rita Howard took the reins with Williams remaining as assistant coach.

A respectable eighth-placed finish followed in the Blues’ first season in the highest division at the time as City maintained our top-flight status.

Although the team remained a part of Manchester City Football Club via City’s community programme, Mathers’ departure to Stockport County in the Community meant obtaining kit wasn’t a straightforward task.

This prompted Williams to begin fundraising during his time working for sports goods manufacturer Umbro by selling football name cards among other tireless methods.

He said: “At the time I was working for Umbro, I did a lot of things. I did a lot of things for Manchester City Ladies.

“I organised name cards because the backing was good, we got some backing [for the team] and we got some of the kit [as a result]. We got to use the minibuses and went to away games.

“But some of the funding we had to do ourselves. We all dug deep in our pockets.

“It was hard at first. It was hard. I just carried on because I loved it. I loved getting involved in it and everything like that.”

In the years that have followed, women’s football in the United Kingdom and around the world has exponential grown, but the groundwork laid by figures such as Williams will never go unnoticed.

WATCH: Ake and Akanji: Celebrating our influences

This reached fever pitch when England won the 2022 European Championships at Wembley thanks to a 2-1 win over Germany at Wembley.

Ella Toone opened the scoring before Lina Magull equalised – sending the game to extra-time where City’s Chloe Kelly scored the iconic winner to seal the Lionesses’ triumph.

Williams and his partner were in the crowd at the national stadium and he says that moment will love long in his memory.

He added: “I'm happy [to see the growth] because my partner was a big part of Manchester City Ladies from the beginning.

“And when England Women won the Euros. Just to be a part of that [was great]. We were there at the final and we just like getting text messages asking ‘how do you feel?’.

“Just to be part of the beginning of it and watching it grow and grow and getting bigger and bigger was absolutely [great].

“It's huge now and you know, I sit there and watch women’s football on TV.

WATCH: In conversation with City in the Community | A Black History Month special

“For my partner, because she was one of those girls who could only play with lads when she when she was growing up.

“She was part of the Corinthians teams, so she knows it from way back.

"I was more happy for her basically, and how it's progressed from when she couldn't mix with the lads and the girls and all sudden it's getting bigger and bigger and then for the women to play at Wembley and to win at Wembley.

“When that second goal went in and I’m not lying to you, when I heard the crowd roar, I'll never experienced it ever again. It was absolutely immense.”

As a black football coach in the 1980s and 1990s, Williams was one of a few at clubs across men, women, semi-professional and professional teams.

However, the statistics of ethnic minority representation within coaching roles haven’t largely grown in the years since across the 92 clubs that form the English Football League and Premier League in the men's game.

Research from The Black Footballers Partnership in 2023 stated 44% of Premier League and 34% of English Football League players were black, with only 4% of managers being so.

After a successful managerial spell in Belgium with Anderlecht, former City captain Vincent Kompany took the reins of Championship Burnley in 2022/23, guiding the Clarets to the Premier League in his first term at Turf Moor.

Despite relegation from the top-flight last term, Kompany was appointed Bayern Munich manager ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.

And Williams hopes Kompany can blaze a trail for other Black coaches to step into management and coaching.

“Well [black] coaches right back then, there was none,” Williams explained.

“Apart from Hope Powell who came through the women's game and stayed in the top job with England for quite a few years. And with men's again there was hardly any. It's a shame, really.

“I'm impressed with Vincent Kompany. He's gone from City, going to his homeland and then gone to there to Burnley.

“And now he's gone to Bayern Munich. And I hope it goes well, I hope it kick starts out there because there are jobs for them [black coaches].”

Image of Neil Mather and Godfrey Williams was taken by Crosland Ward (senior)

Image of  1990 team photo is from the collection of Heidi James.