Hannah Dingley’s appointment as caretaker head coach of Forest Green sees her take another step forward in an already ground-breaking career.
Her historic elevation to the top job at New Lawn on Tuesday night means she has become the first woman to manage a professional men’s team in England.
“I’m really excited for this next step of my career,” she told the club website.
“Pre-season has just begun, and the full season kicks off very soon. It’s an exciting time in football.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to step up and lead such a progressive and forward-thinking club.”
This is not Dingley’s first taste of breaking ground in the men’s game.
Although she first joined Forest Green as a coach four years ago, she remains the only woman to have been in charge of a men’s English Football League academy.
Part of her work at the academy includes overseeing age groups from players as young as eight, right up to those in their late teens hoping to break into the senior squad.
Alongside her work with the men’s academy, Dingley has also strived to develop the next generation of female players with the launch of the Forest Green Girls Academy in 2021.
Previous experience includes work at Notts County and Burton, where she was head of academy coaching with the Brewers for three years.
One eye-catching qualification is that she has a UEFA Pro Licence, something that is required to manage at Premier League level.
Dingley’s appointment has been praised by many, with the EFL’s head of equality, diversity and inclusion Dave McArdle describing it as a “welcome moment for English football”, while Women In Football chair Ebru Koksal tweeted that Dingley had broken “norms and barriers”.
And it seems the new Forest Green caretaker coach may have predicted her own future in an interview with BBC Sport just four months ago, where she suggested a female could soon be managing a men’s professional football team.
“It will come in sooner than you think,” Dingley told BBC Points West in March.
“The success that the Lionesses are having, that Emma Hayes is having at Chelsea. There are others, really good female coaches out there who I have more than faith in would be more than capable of coaching at a men’s level.
“They’re players at the end of the day. It’s football at the end of the day, that doesn’t change. I don’t think it’ll be long before you see a female on the touchline.”
For now though, her focus remains on Forest Green’s pre-season preparations, with the work starting in a friendly at Melksham Town.
New Man Utd boss Amorim says he must win to be afforded time
New Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has said he will need to win matches in order to earn time and create his own identity at the club.
The Portuguese tactician, who left Sporting CP to become Erik ten Hag’s successor at Old Trafford, was speaking during his first interview with the Premier League club.
"We know that we need time, but we have to win time. To win time is to win games. But the most important thing for me is identity. So since day one we will start with our identity," the 39-year-old said.
"Of course we are going to prepare the games, but we will focus a lot in our game model. How to play, how to press, these small things, small details.
"You cannot go 100% on every detail because it will be confusing for the players. So if I have to say one thing, my main goal, my first goal, is identity."
Amorim is the seventh different manager to take charge of the club since Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013 and will face a trip to Ipswich Town in the league on 24 November on his United debut.
But the former Portugal international added that having a young squad will not be an excuse if he fails to get the desired results in the short term.
"I don't want to say that we need time because we are a young team. They are prepared. They are prepared to cope with the demands of playing for United. They should be because they are here," Amorim said.
"We know it will take time, but we have to start since day one without fear, without thinking that they are not used to playing like this. They will start on the first day with our idea, no matter what. That's the goal."
New Manchester United boss Amorim says he needs to win to be afforded time
New Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has said that he will need to win matches in order to win time and create his own identity at the club.
The Portuguese tactician, who left Sporting CP to become Erik ten Hag’s successor at Old Trafford, was speaking during his first interview with the Premier League club.
"We know that we need time, but we have to win time. To win time is to win games. But the most important thing for me is identity. So since day one we will start with our identity," the 39-year-old said.
"Of course we are going to prepare the games, but we will focus a lot in our game model. How to play, how to press, these small things, small details."
"You cannot go 100% on every detail because it will be confusing for the players. So if I have to say one thing, my main goal, my first goal, is identity," he said.
Amorim is the seventh different manager to take charge of the club since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013 and will face a trip to Ipswich Town in the league on 24 November on his United managerial debut.
But the former Portugal international also added that having a young squad will not be an excuse for not getting the desired results in the short term.
"I don't want to say that we need time because we are a young team. They are prepared. They are prepared to cope with the demands of playing for United. They should be because they are here," Amorim said.
"We know it will take time, but we have to start since day one without fear, without thinking that they are not used to playing like this. They will start on the first day with our idea, no matter what. That's the goal."
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
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