Manager Josie North says newly-formed outfit is looking forward to a strong 2014-15 campaign

Stevenage Ladies are aiming high next season, with manager Josie North looking towards a promotion challenge.

The club, which has seen Stevenage FC and Stevenage Borough Ladies combine to form a new outfit, will compete next season in the Women’s Football League Premiership, the third tier of the women’s game.

The club hosted QPR last week at the Lamex Stadium in a friendly in front of 780 supporters – more fans than turned up for Liverpool vs Everton in the Continental Cup on the same evening.

The ladies will play their matches at Codicote Sports Ground, and speaking about her hopes for next season North says the club will be eyeing a successful campaign.

“Hopefully this is now a step in the right direction to move on to bigger and better things,” North told the Comet.

“I feel like in [the QPR game] we’ve shown that we can compete with the teams that are up there.

“For next year we’re going to look for promotion. This year we’ve finished up there but we’re not going to get promoted, but next year that’s definitely going to be our goal.

“I hope it’s the start of something fresh for this team. We want to keep the same values that we’ve had over the last however many years and with the help of [the Stevenage FC Foundation] we can really start to push this club forward.

“The foundation came to us and said to us about the opportunity to join with them. They’ve been brilliant with regards to sponsorship, with regards to setting this whole thing up.

“We had our input but they’ve done so much for this organisation. Alex Tunbridge has been absolutely brilliant with that and he’s kept us in the loop and we’ve had our choice in what we wanted to happen as well. This whole thing couldn’t have happened without them.

“The message we want to drive is we need players to keep us going. You get a lot of players that go off to university, we lose them and they’re only back for holidays. Although we might have 40 players signed up we’ve never got nearly that number available.

“[The QPR match was] a great promotion for what we want to offer.

“We start training in July and anyone that wants to come down is more than welcome.”