The Bugle | Summer 2026

Welcome to Issue 1 of The Bugle, the new West Didsbury & Chorlton newsletter.

A new issue will be published by the WDCFC Board every three months to bring you up to speed on behind the scenes developments at West. 

We'll update you on expenditure, stadium development, volunteering opportunities, community work, football operations and many other things going on at the club.

The Bugle name is a nod to the original club newsletter from August 1976, and is dedicated to its contributors Dave Beresford, Ernie Cripps and Rob Turley. This issue is written by Ollie Sargent and Todd Ashton.

Last Season

First things first, a big thank you to all volunteers and supporters who gave up so much time for West over the course of the season. Across our two senior teams we played nearly 100 competitive matches, and the support from everyone involved was nothing short of phenomenal.

It was ultimately a season of 'what ifs' for our Men's team. We enjoyed good runs in the FA Vase and Macron Cup, but our primary aim for the season was to win promotion from the NWCFL Premier Division and we fell some way short of achieving that. We played a staggering number of games across all competitions - 65, more than any other team in England at any level - and ultimately that took too much of a toll on the group.

Our Women's team enjoyed an improved league season and also reached the ADP Cup semi-finals before falling to the eventual winners, Mancunian Unity. We had a very strong run of form in the lead-up to Christmas, and were unfortunate not to secure a top-half finish in the end.

In addition to our senior teams, this was the inaugural season of the WDCFC Academy. Last summer we introduced four boys teams and four girls teams from U14s through to U18s, and they have all performed excellently in very competitive leagues containing established EFL academy sides. We have already seen players from the U17s boys team step up to play in our Men's Reserve team, and players from the U18s girls team step up to both the Women's Reserves and First Team. Progress has certainly exceeded first year expectations.

Building these pathways was always the ultimate objective of the Academy, and it's very promising to already have some players progressing. The Academy operates alongside our wider Juniors football section, which also continues to thrive in its own right. It's great to have so many young players representing West every weekend, and we want to thank all coaches, parents and volunteers for everything they do to run our teams so successfully.

Away from football, we're proud to highlight the success of the charity initiatives our supporters have been proactive in setting up this year, for example the football kit collecting for the Empower Her project at West Women's match v Darwen, and the CISV Charity Day at the Men's match against Prestwich Heys. These are hugely important missions and we're keen to promote and support them in any way we can.

The Season Ahead

We now know that our Men's team will be playing in the Midlands Premier Division in 2026/27. This will bring about some logistical and financial challenges - primarily around travel to away games - but we'll take them in our stride. We're pleased to welcome Lee Rick as joint Men's manager alongside Steve Yarwood, and we're encouraged by their plans.

Steve and Lee had understandably started building a squad to play in the NWCFL, but we've been impressed by the determination they've shown in ensuring we're in the best possible shape ahead of our first season in the Midlands Premier Division.

Our Men's team have entered the Emirates FA Cup, Isuzu FA Vase, Midland Football League Cup, Lancashire FA Trophy and Frank Hannah Manchester Premier Cup for the coming season, with the two latter competitions serving as an ideal opportunity for our Reserve Team to complement our First Team squad.

The league season will begin on Saturday 1st August, with the Emirates FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round the following weekend on Saturday 8th August. Our Isuzu FA Vase campaign starts at the Second Round stage on Saturday 31st October.

We're delighted to learn our Women's Reserves have been promoted to the NWWRL Division One South. It means that our two senior Women's teams will both be competing in the 2026/27 NWWRL divisions. Given that our First Team are already established in the NWWRL Premier Division, this promotion will allow us to take a more integrated approach to both individual and squad development this season and beyond. Congratulations to all involved for this excellent achievement.

Our Women's team have entered the Adobe Women's FA Cup, Macron League Cup (formerly known as the Alliance Design & Print Cup), Lancashire FA Women's County Cup and Manchester FA Women's Challenge Cup.

We enter the Adobe Women's FA Cup at the Second Round Qualifying stage, on Sunday 20th September. All other dates are currently TBC.

We'll introduce and bring updates from both Management Teams prior to the start of the season.

Midweek Fixtures 

One issue we experienced last season came about from moving our midweek home matches from Tuesday nights to Wednesday nights. 

It became clear during the course of the season that this change wasn't working, and it had a detrimental effect on the team's ability to train consistently each week.

Following consultation with our Management Team and our matchday volunteers, we will now return to playing midweek fixtures on Tuesday nights.

Ground Developments

Whilst it's nice to have a short breather from the football, it's still an incredibly busy time for us off the pitch.

Over the last couple of years a huge amount of work has gone into formulating plans to develop our stadium. This isn't just limited to building additional standing and seating areas; it also includes plans to improve all facilities - toilets, in particular - and ensuring that Brookburn Road is a modern, comfortable and accessible place for everyone to watch football. It's very clear to us that this is an urgent priority, and has been for some time.

The ground isn't where we want and need it to be for a club with our ambitions but, due to our location in a conservation area, obtaining the planning permission required to do any building work is a challenging and delicate process, as demonstrated by the amount of money, time and resources required merely to gain permission to build an outdoor tea bar in 2024.

Nonetheless, we've engaged a team of planning consultants and architects over the last 18 months and we're confident that we'll soon be able to proceed with a schedule of the most significant developments our Brookburn Road home has seen since the club moved here in 1997.

We've held some consultation sessions with volunteers and stakeholders already, but we're very excited to share our plans with all supporters now that we're on the verge of being able to submit numerous planning applications. We'll be hosting sessions in the clubhouse later this summer where supporters can drop in, take a look at our plans and speak to our chief architect. Details of these sessions will be published shortly.

Recent Expenditure

There are always other stadium maintenance projects that need to be managed on an ongoing basis. 

We therefore want to take the opportunity to give an insight into the costs these off-field projects incur. 

Since 2024, just some of the areas we've spent notable sums on include:

• £10,000 on new pitch drainage, which is currently being installed to improve the pitch for next season
• £40,000 laying the access road along the Chorltonville side of the ground
• £27,000 erecting new fencing and gates around the stadium perimeter
• £30,000 installing LED floodlights
• £10,000 re-paving standing areas around the perimeter of the pitch
• £8,000 installing a new PA system, with some adjustments still needed
• £8,000 on general clubhouse refurbishments
• £6,000 on reconfiguration and development of the main entrance

This is not to mention generators, tills, battery packs, alarm systems, cameras etc etc...

There are also costs that arrive unexpectedly, as we saw earlier this year when a water leak required immediate and expensive remedial action.

We can absolutely assure supporters that 100% of our income goes back into the club to cover these essential projects and developments. Much of the work has been completed or prepared with the FA's National League System Step 4 ground grading requirements in mind and will mean that we are in a strong position should our Men's team reach that level, as is our immediate target.

Restructuring & Governance

We're exploring the possibility of restructuring the club so that we have both a charity arm to cover our community work and a trading subsidiary to manage our commercial activities.

This is another complex project that we've been working on for some time, and will hopefully result in the club being able to play a bigger role in our local community and have better opportunities to apply for grants needed to do this. We're at an early stage of these consultations and will provide further updates when we can.

In terms of immediate governance issues, we're introducing / have introduced a number of new policies relating to safeguarding young and vulnerable players, equal opportunities and supporter conduct, among other things. Where appropriate, we'll be consulting with volunteers, stakeholders and supporters.

Four new Directors have been appointed to the WDCFC Board since the start of 2025. We - Ollie Sargent and Todd Ashton - have been appointed along with Kev Hill following periods spent as non-executive advisors. In addition, we've recently appointed Steven Oakes as the club's first Commercial Director. It's a real coup to appoint someone with Steven's skills and experience, and we look forward to supporting him in strengthening our funding streams.

Volunteering

We're at an important point in our history but we do need help. We have an incredible team of volunteers who put a huge amount of time into this club and we simply wouldn't be where we are without them. Those volunteers are stretched very thinly at the moment.

If you think you can help move the club forward, please get in touch. There are plenty of tasks that need doing on a matchday, but if you have any other expertise that would help the club, we're sure you could make a positive contribution and we'd love to hear from you. You can read the specific list of volunteer roles we're in need of HERE.

Pan-Disability Football

We're looking for a specific volunteer to help with the running of a new Pan-Disability football offering. We're still in the early stages but the initial discussions we've had with the Lancashire FA have been very productive. 

This has resulted in the FA identifying West as being on the journey towards becoming a 3-Star England Football Accredited Club, which is something that we will be very proud to achieve.

To advance this project we need to onboard volunteers interested in coaching pan-disabled players, which will initially involve planning and delivering midweek training sessions, ultimately with a view to arranging ad hoc matches against other clubs. We'll arrange your necessary training courses via Lancashire FA.

We're really keen to hear from anyone able to help us deliver this, please do get in touch via the volunteer form linked above.

Electronic Tickets

We've been carrying out procurement work to establish a new electronic ticketing partner, but our lateral move to the Midland Football League has forced a rethink and reprioritisation.

We're excited by the possibilities and a new solution is still very much on the agenda, but it is not an urgent need and nor is currently an effective use of our resources. This project has therefore been temporarily put on hold.

When you return to Brookburn Road you'll find that the main entrance has been reconfigured to now allow four queues instead of two, and the unlikely eventuality of all-ticket matches is insufficient to justify investment in a new platform at this moment in time.

For 2026/27, we'll be using ad hoc solutions for events that require them.

We'd like to thank Shocal for being our ticketing partner for the past five years or so, and wish them every success for the future.

Season Tickets

We're currently working on our season ticket and membership packages for 2026/27, which will go on sale on Wednesday July 1st.

Our season tickets will once again include entry to all Men's and Women's home league games.

Enjoy The Summer

We hope you enjoy the break and we look forward to seeing you in pre-season.

Issue 2 of The Bugle will be published at the end of September 2026.