Woking Football Club’s women’s team joint-manager Conor Angell is looking forward to his side’s match at the Laithwaite Community Stadium this Sunday (September 8).

Woking will host Abbey Rangers in Sunday’s Southern Region Women’s Football League Division One South match.

The Cardinals will be looking for three points after drawing 0-0 at Wimborne Town Ladies in their opening league game of the season on Sunday, September 1.

And Angell, who was appointed as the women’s team’s joint-manager this summer with Owen Sims, is looking forward to his side having the opportunity to play on the same turf that the club’s men’s team play on in the National League.

“We’re very excited,” said Angell. “We’re honoured to have the opportunity to play at the stadium and we’re going to go out there with a mindset that we’re here to prove something.

“It’s a statement to the league and a statement to the local area of how Woking FC Women and the club is progressing and moving forwards and that women’s football in Woking is here to progress and get better.

“It’s a completely new management team for this season. It’s an overhauled team and a new system, so for us it’s just about improvements. Obviously we want to aim for promotion and to win the league, that’s the goal, and we’re going to push as hard as we can for that.

“We believe in the tactics that we’ve implemented, we believe in the system and we believe in the players that we’ve brought in and for us the sky is the limit.

“For me, Woking is the biggest club in Surrey. The women’s team should be higher up than what it is, and for us it needs to be for the sake of the name. We want to push it up to the same pedigree as the men’s team.

“We’re looking at other clubs that have got non-league men’s teams, like Chatham and Lewes, whose women’s teams are higher up the pyramid, and how they are operating. Those are our aspirations and goals to get up and be in and among them and having fans consistently through the door and watching, wanting to know the players and wanting to get shirts signed.

“For us, women’s football in Woking has been neglected and hopefully we’re here to really push it and get Woking FC Women up there so that when people talk about Woking FC they don’t just talk about the men’s team but are talking about the women as well.”

Woking Football Club chief executive Emanuele Palladino said: “As a club it is about taking small steps to grow out the women’s section and ultimately to create a sustainable women’s team within the club and a women’s team that can thrive and grow.

“We’re starting with the first team, but we want to filter that down to a development squad and what we do with the academy.

“The men’s team and women’s team are equals at Woking Football Club. The men’s team have had a head start and now it’s about trying to make sure we close that gap to make them as equal as possible.”

Doors at the Laithwaite Community Stadium will open at 2pm on Sunday. The match will kick-off at 3pm.