As Women’s Manager Siobhan Hodgetts-Still looks forward to an exciting new chapter in her life, she can cast her eyes back on the 2025/26 season with unwavering joy, knowing she guided Albion Women to their decade-best season in the FAWNL Northern Premier.
‘Shev’ will welcome a baby boy to the Hodgetts-Still family over the coming weeks, beginning the captivating journey of motherhood and a period of maternity leave from her childhood club.
She departs for the time being as Albion's first Women’s Manager, having seen her team make obvious improvements across her three years in charge, and relishing some enthralling cup runs along the way.
We caught up with the gaffer before she heads away on maternity leave to get the lowdown on becoming a mom, the 2025/26 season, and how the hunt for an Interim Women’s Head Coach is going - take it away Shev…
Shev, we’re edging closer to you heading on maternity leave; tell us how you’re feeling ahead of this exciting time for you and your family?
My partner and I are really looking forward to the next bit of our journey. These are exciting times, and we’ve got around 11 weeks to go now; it’s gone really quickly - but we’re really excited to get going, and both be mums now - we’re excited. We can’t wait for this next chapter to start.
Football-wise, it’s been a really exciting time for you and the squad, a decade-best season for us. How do you go about assessing 2025/26?
It was a great season, finishing in our best position for a decade was a great achievement. We also got to two semi-finals, in the FAWNL Cup and the BCFA County FA Challenge Cup, along with a strong run in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup. If I was to assess it more critically, I’d say there were some games where we missed out on some points that we were a bit disappointed in. They would’ve helped our position come the end of the season had we got them. That’s football sometimes, and we’ve had some great moments across the campaign, and we’ll take the sixth-place finish - we know we can do better next season and be a bit more consistent with our performances to push on.
We had a bit of a tricky spell right at the start of the campaign, but we turned it around with a seven-game winning run - was there a moment where that form turned around?
It’s always tricky at the start of the season, when you’ve got teams coming up who are full of confidence. We were disappointed not to get a win from Loughborough Lightning and our performance at Hull City Ladies, but that was a real turning point when we spoke to the players and had some honest conversations - we went on a seven-game streak. That was a bit of a moment where things turned; we had some great league matches and cup campaigns. We had some fantastic moments from then.
We had some great occasions in the cup competitions this year, we got to two semi-finals and faced a WSL team in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup - we seem to find a way into the latter stages of these competitions, don’t we?
I’m really proud of the shift that the players put in this season. We had 42 games overall, including pre-season. Losing to AFC Bournemouth, who went on to win the cup, and to Wolves, in the County Cup, it was something that we wanted to win again, but we gave them a great game. It wasn’t meant to be, though.
There were lots of standout moments and matches across the season - what was your favourite?
Games like Everton in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup, those games are really special, and being on TNT Sports was amazing. For me, as a Manager, it’s the games where you go and win in the last minute that stand out. Liverpool Feds away, the turnaround in that one was amazing to win 3-2, similarly against Stoke at home - getting a late goal was incredible. Being an Albion fan, beating Wolves in the FAWNL Cup was amazing. It was something that I’m really proud of - the players are as well. That performance was one of the best this season.
Since you took on this role, we’ve got better by a couple of places every season; that progression is clear to see…
That’s something that I wanted to happen, but I also think it shows the support of the club in terms of resources, and the funding that they’re putting into the Women’s team is amazing. We’re constantly growing as a club; you can see that in the results and the league positions that we’ve had.
Something else that seems to be growing is our fanbase. How pleased have you been with the support across the campaign?
That’s something that we touched on at the start of last season. We wanted to grow our fanbase but are aware that it takes time. With the help of media and off-the-pitch resources, we’ve seen an increase in support. We know as a club that we want to see more and get more fans to our games; we’ll be looking to do that as a club over the next 12-18 months.
Onto your summer work now, our released & retained list went out a few weeks ago, and I’m sure we have targets that we’re working on - how’s our squad looking ahead of 2026/27?
We want to wish all of the players who are departing us all the best of luck in their next chapter. I want to also thank them for their hard work and efforts they’ve put in across the seasons they’ve been here. Our focus is now on those players that we’ve offered deals to, there’s a lot of negotiating and discussions in place at the moment to be on board with what we’re doing next season. We want to strengthen our squad next season, so there’s constant discussion to bring in players with more experience to help us get up the table.
Before you go away, you and the team have the task of recruiting an Interim Head Coach to hold the fort - and we also have the exciting news of our new U18 team being built - how are those two things coming along?
It’s been a busy few weeks for me. We’re in discussions with players from the recruitment side of things, but we’re also interviewing for an Interim Head Coach to take over while I’m on maternity leave. We’ve had some great candidates, and we’re hopeful we can announce who it is over the next week. In terms of the U18s, this year we’re going to have them within the club, which will help bridge the gap between the first team and the academy - we’re in the process of recruiting staff members and players - I’m really excited for that plan to be put into action.
What do you think you’ll miss most about football while you’re away?
Everything I think. I don’t think I’ve been away from football since the age of 16; I’m definitely going to miss it, and I won’t be able to keep away. You’ll definitely still see me at games, but as I said at the start, we’re really excited to welcome our baby to the world and have that time together as well. I’m confident that with the new players we bring in and the new Head Coach, the team will be in good hands for the start of next season - I’m excited to see how the girls start the campaign.
Being a mom is going to be an incredibly exciting time for you. What’s the thing you’re most excited about?
Being a mom is really exciting in itself. It’s something that we’ve tried so hard for over the last couple of years, and we’re finally in a great place and are really excited for this moment. We can’t wait to start that journey and welcome him into the world.
