Brentford Women to play in top of the table clash at the Gtech Community Stadium

Brentford Women return to the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday afternoon against Saltdean United in the biggest game of their season so far

Carly Williams’ side sit top of the London and South East Premier Division with a six-point lead over their visitors, though Saltdean have three games in hand. The reverse fixture earlier this season ended in a 1-0 Saltdean win, Brentford’s first ever defeat at this level.

Kick-off is at 2pm, and tickets are five pounds for adults, free for under-18s, and two pounds from every ticket sold goes to Brentford’s girls’ development programmes through the Community Sports Trust.

The Gtech has become something of a fortress for the women’s team. This will be their fifth appearance at the stadium and they have won all four previous matches there, starting with a 4-2 victory over Watford in November 2022 that drew a crowd of 5,116, a record for a tier six women’s fixture in England.

Brentford Women clash with Saltdean

When away from their usual home ground of Bedfont Sports Club in Feltham, subsequent visits brought a 7-0 win over Clapton Community in front of 3,500 supporters and a 4-2 defeat of promotion rivals Bromley watched by 3,600 in March 2025.

The stadium, which hosted group stage matches and a quarter-final during the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, has a capacity of 17,250.

Williams was not at the club for those occasions but has heard plenty about them. “The girls that were here last year have spoken so highly about the experience of playing at the Gtech,” she said. “We’ve come so far as a side since the opening day and we are ready for a huge game in front of as many Bees fans as possible.”

Brentford Women in a previous appearance at the Gtech Community Stadium

She arrived ahead of this season from Arsenal Women, where she had spent seven years coaching across age groups from under-10s to under-21s and worked as an assistant with England’s under-17s.

Williams is the latest chapter in a story that began in 1990, when Roger Crook founded the club so his daughter Amy could play football. It started as an under-14s team playing friendlies before entering the Greater London Women’s League, merged with SmithKline Beecham to form a senior side, and spent decades working through the lower tiers.

The club was formally integrated into Brentford FC’s structure in 2021.

Karleigh Osborne, a former Brentford men’s defender, managed the team from 2018 and oversaw the LSE Division One North title in 2024-25, winning 21 of their first 21 league games to secure promotion to tier five for the first time. Williams inherited a squad in transition. Eleven new players came in. Long-serving captain Mollie Holmes retired and six first-team regulars left.

She set her stall out early. “Our aim is promotion,” she said in her first interview. “I’m not going to shy away from that.” The results have largely backed up the ambition. Brentford won their first eight league games of the season before successive defeats to Saltdean and Dartford in November tightened the promotion picture.

Since then, the team have been on a sustained unbeaten run in the league. In January, they scored 17 goals in four games and Williams was named LSE Premier Manager of the Month.

The players aren’t full-time professionals, and balance football with jobs and studies,  the matchday programme on Sunday will include a Q&A session with two squad members discussing how they manage the demands of both.

Captain Maddie Phillips, a lifelong Brentford fan, was appointed by Williams at the start of the campaign. Khyri McKenzie, a forward and one of the team’s leading scorers, was named on the 2025 Football Black List for her work founding McKenzi3Kickz, a business aimed at improving accessibility in girls’ football. Her stall will be in the fan zone on Sunday.

Asees Sangha, still a teenager, has become a regular contributor since scoring on her debut in August. Ashley Cheatley, 30, scored a hat-trick on her Gtech debut against Clapton Community and remains a key attacking threat.

Their opponents on Sunday were formed in 2017 in Brighton and have climbed from tier seven to tier five in a matter of years. They beat Brentford 1-0 in the first meeting this season, a result that briefly took them top of the table on goal difference.

Williams was gracious about that defeat. “We look at our performance and I thought we were very good,” she said. “It was just us not being clinical.”

Sunday’s match has also been designated as Brentford’s Football v Homophobia fixture, following the club’s recent Professional Game award for LGBTQ+ inclusion. A fan zone opens at 12.30pm featuring small businesses, workshops and matchday entertainment, alongside McKenzie’s McKenzi3Kickz accessibility discussion and a self-portrait station run by Candid Studios.

Brentford Women v Saltdean United, Sunday 22 February, 2pm kick-off, Gtech Community Stadium. Tickets available at brentfordfc.com.

All photographs credited to Brentford FC

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