Karleigh Osborne's season review: Brentford Women | OneFootball

Reflecting on the 2023/24 season, Brentford Women head coach Karleigh Osborne says his side’s cup double and near league win was a “massive achievement”.

Osborne’s group came within one point of winning the London South East Division One North and earning promotion to tier five, while also winning the Capital Cup and Trophy Cup to round out the campaign.

“It’s been a really good season, we wanted to come out with some silverware this year. Yes, the league was our priority, but to come away with two trophies and miss out on the league by a point is a massive achievement,” said Osborne.

“I’m super proud and it gives us something to build on now.”

Coming into this season after finishing second in the league by four points last campaign, Brentford’s intentions were clear: win the league.

While that didn’t eventuate, Osborne said the Bees learnt valuable lessons that will take them into a strong 2024/25 season.

“These things happen, this is football. Unfortunately, it’s never going to go your way all the time and it didn’t in certain periods this year,” explained Osborne.

“What this squad has done, what they’ve achieved, and the history they’ve set this year has been magnificent - that will never be able to be taken away from them.

“There’s a lot of lessons that we’ve learnt this year that we’ll take into the next season, there’ll be some movement with the squad and stuff like that.

“We need to keep upping the standards all over, so that will happen without a doubt.

"We’ll be ready to go, we’ll have a tough pre-season, but we’ll be ready to go come the start of the year because we want to hit the ground running.”

It was a history-making campaign for the Bees, with two cups added to the trophy cabinet, their first appearance in the FA Cup first round proper, playing at Gtech Community Stadium for a second-straight season and making their Wheatsheaf Park debut.

While Osborne’s side was bundled out of the FA Cup by tier four side Southampton, the fight back from 3-0 down to equalise midway through the second half in front of a loud Bedfont Sports Club proved the group is on the right path.

“The way we’re moving forward as a club is phenomenal and we want to keep doing that, because we want to be a club that are front runners and leaders of making the women’s game better and we’re doing that,” said Osborne.

“Our fan base is growing game on game. At the Gtech game, we had over 4,500; Wheatsheaf I think we had more than 400. We’re in tier six at this moment in time, that’s massive when you think about it.

“There were times when I was playing in League 2 and the men’s team didn’t get 4,500 fans, so it just goes to show the impact that these girls are having on the fans because they want to come out and watch them play.

“It’s not players and fans, it’s everyone together and we all want to push the club forward. We’re writing a story here and it’s going to be a good one - there’ll be some ups and downs in it, no doubt - but it’s exciting times ahead and I’m just proud to be in the position I’m in.”

Nikki Woods (Player of the Year), Chloe Logie (Supporters' Player of the Year) and Freya Worsley (Players' Player of the Year) were each recognised for their efforts this season with awards, as Osborne highlighted the development of not only the individual players in the squad, but the team as a whole across the campaign.

“We've seen massive development this year," he said.

“As well as our award winners, you look at performances of people like Regan [Graver], she’s been unbelievable this year, she’s been a real standout figure for what we’ve done this year.

“You look at Sam [Read] who’s gone in at centre-back and been magnificent, Chloe Webb’s been brilliant... I could go through every single person.

“I think Mollie Holmes is one that does so much for this group and doesn’t necessarily get the plaudits for it. The work that she’s done and what she’s given to this club over these last nine or 10 years, is unbelievable.”

Looking to next season, the main aspiration for Osborne’s group remains simple again: win the league.

Osborne asserted: “Ultimately, the main goal is promotion, it’s the one that we wanted this year and we’ve missed out on, we can’t afford to miss out on it next year.

“If we can retain the cups, I’ll be over the moon with that, of course, and we’ll be pushing for that because we want to win everything that we’re in. Can we extend our run in the FA Cup as well?

“But the priority for me is winning the league.”