Durham Women FC Willie Kirk is making his mark in WSL2, and the early signs suggest a team rediscovering exactly what made them so hard to face in the first place.
The backdrop is an unlikely one. Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso Season Four has planted itself in the Women’s Super League landscape, with the fictional Ted returning to England to coach a new team in WSL2. One of the show’s most prominent images, a sign reading ‘Believe’, threads through the current series. For Kirk and Durham, it turns out to be more than good timing.
Durham Women FC Willie Kirk on rebuilding belief
In his programme notes before the season began, Kirk wrote that following a pre-season friendly against Liverpool, the squad appeared not to ‘believe they are as good as they are’. He told the Durham Roarcast podcast that while the challenge of building that belief is real, it is changing.
It is a project Kirk knows well. Having rebuilt teams at Bristol, Everton and Leicester, he arrived at Maiden Castle to find a group that, in his own words, had ‘lost their identity somewhat’. The raw material was never the problem. Beth Hepple made her 300th appearance for the club last week, with a return of just over a goal every three games. That kind of consistency runs through the squad.
Kirk’s approach centres on words like trust, empowerment and adaptability. Fostering those qualities takes time, but the signs are that everyone at the club is buying into it. In an era when players elsewhere can feel like commodities, hearing a manager describe his squad as the human beings they are carries real weight.
Results starting to reflect the Kirk effect
The early weeks of the season were uneven. Durham only came alive in the closing stages of their opening game, too late to change the outcome. Then came the trip to Leicester, and the picture became a little clearer in two different ways.
In a Barclays WSL2 fixture, WSL Football records that Leicester City defeated Durham 4-2. A tough afternoon. But Kirk’s focus was never solely on that scoreline, and what came next told a different story. Durham Women FC recorded a 1-0 victory over Leicester City, a result Kirk reflected on directly after the game. Back-to-back meetings with the same opponent, two very different outcomes. That kind of turnaround is exactly what a new manager needs to point to.
The ‘Kirk Effect’, as it might come to be known, is getting there. Durham had a good chance of at least a point in one of those Leicester outings right up until late on, which is the sort of performance that builds momentum even when the result does not go your way.
Next up at Maiden Castle is Nottingham Forest, a side going through their own transition following a change in management but with two draws from their opening matches. It is the kind of game Durham, growing in confidence, should be targeting. With belief building on the pitch, the Maiden Castle faithful will be expecting Kirk’s side to take something from it.
Newcastle and Sunderland also in action
Elsewhere in the region, both Newcastle and Sunderland carry perfect records into this weekend, each with two wins from two, and both are at home.
Newcastle welcome Sheffield United to Gateshead, with former striker Amy Andrews in the visiting squad. Sunderland host Southampton, a fixture with plenty of personal subplot: goalkeeper Grace Malony lines up for the away side, as does Libbi McInnes, who spent the past six years at Sunderland since the age of 15.
Three Northeast clubs, all with reason for optimism. For Durham, though, the work Kirk is putting in goes beyond results. Get the belief right, and the wins tend to follow.