WSL 2 promotion: How Newcastle United are plotting a course to the WSL

Grace Williams, director of women’s football since August 2025, believes the club cannot wait around for promotion before behaving like a top-flight outfit.

“The best way to explain it is the different departments that we’ve developed,” Williams says. “It’s not just a medical person and a coach. We’ve got a medical department, a head of performance and then there is social media, marketing, sports psychology, nutrition…

“All the different departments that sit underneath the club are in place.”

There have been tough decisions taken too. In October, Newcastle sacked manager Becky Langley, who had led the club through successive promotions from the fourth tier to the second.

In Langley’s place, the club poached Tanya Oxtoby from Northern Ireland to be their new manager.

“Big respect and thanks to Becky for where she got the club to. She should be really proud of what she achieved,” Williams says. “For me, it was looking at what we can do to take it to that next level.

“We wanted to be able to bring someone in that’s experienced the top. Tanya brings everything that we wanted on and off the pitch.”

For her part, Oxtoby has fully bought into the drive to reach the top flight.

“The biggest thing when I took this job was to try and get us WSL-ready,” the former Chelsea assistant tells BBC Sport. “Since the moment I’ve walked in through the door, I’ve tried to challenge the processes and the way in which we work.

“The club is ambitious – we don’t shy away from that. And whether promotion happens this season, or happens next season, our destiny is in our own hands, which is great, because this league is so competitive.”

On whether she had any reservations about taking the job given the current ownership, Oxtoby says she is aware of the issues around sportswashing, but her decision to come to Tyneside came down to the club’s ambition and values.

“There was real alignment,” she says.