Folkestone Invicta Women won the league and cup in their first season, stepped up a division in their second, and are now building something bigger than results: a visible pathway for girls and women in East Kent. “We don’t want to play men’s football, we just wanna play football,” says coach Rebecca Sheepwash — a line that sits at the heart of what she and head coach Mark Janser discuss here: belief, pressure, visibility, changing attitudes, and why women’s football at Cheriton Road is only just getting started.
Folkestone Invicta Women are only in their second season, but they’ve already made themselves impossible to ignore.
Last season, the club’s new senior women’s side won the league and the Kent Divisional Cup. This season, they moved up into Kent Division One East, faced stronger opposition, absorbed injuries, and still showed they belonged.
But this isn’t just about silverware. It’s about women & girls seeing a route into senior football. It’s about women being visible at Cheriton Road. And it’s about a club learning how to build something that lasts.
This team started as a new senior women’s side and won the league and Kent Divisional Cup in its first season. When did you realise this could become something special?
Mark Janser: The first game we played was a home game here, and we had no idea whether we were going to be very good, what sort of standard it was going to be, or where we were going to fit in.
We won 4-1 and were 4-0 up at half-time. At that point, we were thinking, thank goodness, we’re not going to be blown away ourselves in this league.
But for me, the real moment was an away game at Larkfield in the cup. I knew Larkfield were traditionally a very good side and I thought it would be tough. We won that game and I thought, actually, we’ve got a good chance this season.
A lot of clubs talk about pathways for girls. What does that look like in real life at Folkestone Invicta Women?
Rebecca Sheepwash: When we stepped into this club, there hadn’t been a women’s team before. We were the pilot team, and I feel we had a lot of pressure on us to perform in that first season.
But football needs more than individuals to change. The culture needs to change.
Folkestone Invicta put its head above the parapet and said, come on, we’re going to do this. We need to make sure we get this right. What do you need from us? How is this going to work going forward?
There are still things to improve. We need more visibility. But things are moving in the right direction. Nothing happens quickly, but as long as we’re moving forward, and as long as we have the club’s support, that’s all we can ask for.
We performed for the club in that first year. We won the league. We won the cup. We couldn’t have done any more.
You mentioned visibility. Should the women’s team have had more local coverage after winning the double?
Rebecca Sheepwash: For Mark and me, it was our first year in senior football. We were learning on the job.
If I was in the position then that I’m in now, I probably would’ve pushed Mark much more and said: let’s get the local press involved, let’s do more around that.
But we were swept away by it as well, because the girls had done so well. It went through and was over before it had really sunk in.
When I talk about visibility, I mean we need to be seen more, so we can be good role models for the girls coming up.
After promotion, what was the biggest difference between Kent Division Two East and Kent Division One East?
Mark Janser: The expected huge jump in quality.
I don’t mean to be disparaging about Division Two, but some teams at that level are maybe more social. They want to play together, enjoy it and have fun.
Here, we wanted to move up, and we still want to move through the divisions and push on. The standard in Division One has been very good. There are good teams and good players.
After winning a double, how do you keep the players ambitious but grounded?
Rebecca Sheepwash: Our players are very grounded. We kept the standards the same and the focus the same.
We were going into a completely different division, and every game was a challenge. The girls had been watching Division One, watching the teams, seeing how they played. They were focused from the beginning.
There was no expectation to go and win it. We wanted to consolidate ourselves in the league. We wanted people to know that Folkestone had arrived.
If we’d gone ahead and won it, fantastic. But that wasn’t the expectation. We kept the standards high, but realistic.
What kind of identity do you want Folkestone Invicta Women to have on the pitch?
Mark Janser: For me, it doesn’t matter how good you are. What matters is the effort and how much fight you put into it.
There are always going to be players who are better than the individual or better than the team. There’s always a bigger fish.
Can we give bigger teams a fight and make sure they know they’ve been in a fight? That’s what we try to imprint on our players. There’s no substitute for effort and work rate.
You can’t have a team that revolves around one player. It doesn’t work. The players work so hard for each other. They don’t give up. They don’t stop.
How often do the women train, and is analysis part of what you do?
Mark Janser: Twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. They train here, and they’re very lucky to have the facilities here.
The majority of games are recorded and watched back. The players get to view that footage and we like to make sure they’re watching and analysing their own game.
We’re not yet at the point where we’re using analytical data at that level, but it’s something we want to get more involved in.
You have to remember the players have their own jobs outside football as well, so getting everyone together at the same time is difficult.
Will the squad need strengthening next season?
Mark Janser: We have players leaving this year because they’re going to university and moving away, which we’re sad to see.
Both of our daughters are leaving the team this year and going to university, so that’s going to be strange and difficult next year.
But we would want to strengthen anyway. After our first season, we strengthened, and we’ll definitely be strengthening again.
How difficult is it to bring new women players to Folkestone Invicta?
Rebecca Sheepwash: We hold trials and advertise them. Mark also has a positive approach where players can come along to a training session, no pressure, and see how they feel about us and how we feel about them.
At trials, it’s never just a straight yes or no. We always get them to come along to train and make sure they’re a good fit.
It’s not just about what they can do with their feet. You can have an amazing footballer who can do all the fancy things, but if they’re not right for the team, it doesn’t work.
Mark Janser: The men’s team and women’s team both face the same issue: our catchment area is cut in half by the sea.
There are only so many people in our catchment area, so we have to think about how we attract players to travel to us. We have to be as attractive as we can.
Do the women receive payment to play?
Mark Janser: No, no payment whatsoever.
Rebecca Sheepwash: It’s not about equality, but about equity. The men’s team bring in a lot of income. The women’s team don’t yet.
I’ll be the biggest advocate for them [the Women’s Team] once that starts to happen. I’d be 100% saying: let’s look at what we’re giving our women.
But we’re very young and still in our infant stages. The women don’t get paid, but equally, they don’t pay anything out. They’ve got the facilities and the kit.
It’s not always about money. You can reward the women in other ways: by supporting them, being proud of them, and making sure they’re talked about, shown and visible.
The women’s team is about more than results. How seriously do the players feel that responsibility?
Rebecca Sheepwash: Very seriously. They want to inspire young girls, and they are doing that.
We have Hayley Terrell (pictured), our striker, who does a lot of coaching around schools. She has young girls and young boys looking up to her, asking how she plays football and how they can carry on with football as well.
We’ve been talking about a day where the community can come and do drills with the team, do some coaching and play with the team. It hasn’t been decided yet, but it’s something Mark and I are talking to the club about.
Mark Janser: My daughter coaches, along with others, with the girls’ under-14 side. Having a female coach there who is also a player has been inspirational.
The girls want to know what’s happening with the women’s team. They want to come and be mascots and walk out with the players.
When we got to the final last year, one of the girls’ teams were mascots for the day. You could tell how much it meant to them.
The club has a Her Game Too partnership. What still needs to change?
Mark Janser: People’s attitudes need to change. Unfortunately, women’s football is still looked down on by a lot of men. There’s no way of escaping that.
We still hear comments about the women’s team and women’s football in general, as though it isn’t at the right level.
It comes down to exposure. More exposure can’t stop and mustn’t stop. That’s how you change attitudes. It becomes the norm. It mustn’t be seen as something different.
Rebecca Sheepwash: Women have to be seen as integral to the sport, not an add-on.
It’s a culture that has to change. That takes time. We just have to keep fighting, keep pushing, keep being visible, and the culture will slowly shift.
You do have to grow a thick skin, because we hear the comments. We always say to the ladies: let your feet do the talking. Give the crowd a really good game of football.
Mark Janser: You look at the Lionesses and there has been a huge jump in exposure and quality since their first championship win. That really started the steamroller of women’s football. It’s going to be unstoppable.
We’re just two little cogs, slowly and quietly changing it from within. We’ll do our part.
More than 300 supporters turned out for the first competitive home fixture. What did that say about the appetite for women’s football in Folkestone?
Rebecca Sheepwash: Again, that word: visibility.
We need to keep pushing our games. We’re in talks about community days, so we’re seen and involved in the community. If you involve the community, the community in turn want to see and support the women’s team.
It needs growing. We’re only in our second season. We need to continue pushing, growing and meeting with the club about what we can do next.
The club have been amazing. There has been no charge at the women’s games over the last two seasons, so people have been able to come in and watch. That’s absolutely amazing.
Women’s football is growing quickly, but growth brings pressure too. What’s the biggest practical challenge?
Mark Janser: It has to be sustainable. We have to build something that’s going to last.
We don’t want to be one or two-season wonders and then fizzle out. We can’t let that happen.
We’ve been lucky with the facilities. They’re amazing. Playing our home games here is incredible. The changing rooms, the bar facilities — players get fed after the game, along with the away teams, so everyone’s looked after.
Rebecca Sheepwash: Folkestone Invicta have put their head above the parapet and said, yes, we’re going to take on a women’s team.
I think they’re learning alongside us about what the women need. The club need to know they’re investing in a team that’s invested in the club. It’s a two-way street.
This season has brought challenges. We lost our goalkeeper to injury in the final stretch. We lost one of our fastest players for five months. We’ve had a lot of injuries.
The women have stepped up, met those challenges head on, and still come forward. For our second season, moving up into Division One, I don’t think the club can ask any more.
When young girls in Folkestone watch the team now, what do you want them to see?
Rebecca Sheepwash: I want them to see that there’s a space in football for them without a fight. There is space for us in football. We do belong in this sport.
We started with one team, the under-18s, and then it was our team. Now there are girls’ teams at under-13, under-14 and under-16 level. It has grown.
I want young girls to look at the women’s team and think: I can do that.
Even at grassroots level, if a young girl doesn’t make the elite pathway, there’s still a pathway. You can play football, have a full-time job, run a family, and those things can work together.
Mark Janser: We don’t want any of them coming through the age groups and then drifting away. We want them to feel at home here. We want them to know they’re wanted.
One of our players was only 16 last year when we won the league, and she was an integral member of that team. We want the under-16 players who are turning 16 to know there’s a place for them here.
After Division One East, where would the next step take the team?
Mark Janser: To the Premier Division.
That is the football answer. The bigger answer is that Folkestone Invicta Women are already building something more important than a league table. It’s free to watch the women’s game
They are building a route. A route for girls who want to keep playing. A route for women who want to return. A route for young players who can now look at Cheriton Road and see not just a pitch, but a possibility.
So here’s the message. If you’re a woman or girl in Folkestone, Hythe, Romney Marsh, Dover, Ashford or anywhere across East Kent, and you want to play football, don’t wait for permission. Don’t stand at the edge wondering whether there’s space for you. There is.
Folkestone Invicta Women train on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Alcaline Stadium. Go along. Try it. Test yourself. Meet the team. See what’s possible. And as a supporter of the women’s and girls’ game, you can watch them at Cheriton Road for free — including their final game of the season on 10 May at the Alcaline Stadium. There’s no excuse not to get behind them.
Because this is how women’s football grows: one player, one session, one team, one club, one girl watching from the side and realising she doesn’t have to watch for ever.
At Folkestone Invicta Women, the door is open, the pitch is ready, and the message is simple: come and be part of it.
The Shepway Vox Team
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