Hashtag United Women didn’t even exist at the start of the decade, but bold investment from the club’s pioneering owners has made them a rising force...
WOMEN’S FOOTBALL NEWS
After securing promotion to the third tier at the end of last season, Hashtag United Women manager Jason Stephens predicted his side would do more than “make up the numbers” this term – and results have suggested he was spot on.
Throughout 2023-24, the Tags have been locked in a fierce battle with Portsmouth at the top of the WNL Southern Premier Division. Following an FA restructure last summer, the champions of both the North and South tables now earn promotion to the Championship, making back-to-back successes a serious possibility.
“Nobody is expecting us to go up this year,” club owner Spencer Owen tells FFT. “It would be a tremendous achievement to even finish in the top three or four when you look at the household names we’re competing with – Pompey, Ipswich, MK Dons – but nothing’s impossible.”
Promotion would constitute the latest chapter in a fairytale story for Hashtag United, who only launched their men’s side eight years ago after YouTuber Owen started a team with pals that swiftly gained a cult online fanbase. While the men have quickly risen from playing friendlies against retired professionals and comedians to the seventh-tier Isthmian League Premier, the women have rocketed up to the third tier in an even shorter space of time. It was only in April 2020 that Owen announced the foundation of a women’s side, having merged with pre-existing AFC Basildon.
“When we merged and created the women’s team, we were looking to get back into tier three,” continues Owen. “That’s the level Basildon had been at before, although we knew the division was now more competitive than ever. With everything we do at the club, we try to act and get to positions where we can compete, sustainably, and the third tier was very much a part of that.”
Head of media and operations, Neil Smythe, admits the idea of motoring through the leagues, and the various criteria that must be met at each level, is a daunting one, with no parent club to lean on. “It’s still essentially a family business,” he tells FFT.
Owner Owen, who has relied on his club’s global online backing for the bulk of their investment to date, feels they may be currently operating at their upper limits as things stand. “We’re aware of the money being spent in women’s football in our division,” he says. “And we simp
