What’s next for Manchester United Women after Old Trafford debut in Women’s Super League

Manchester United marked an historic day at Old Trafford with a 3-1 over Everton in the Women’s Super League.

The stadium, which is the home of their men’s team, saw 20,241 fans in attendance at the Theatre of Dreams - a record-high for the competition this season.

Alessia Russo was named Player of the Match after netting twice for the Red Devils against the Toffees, while captain Katie Zelem was also on the scoresheet, converting a penalty in the 54th-minute.

The occasion will go down in the club’s history and could spark a significant investment from the United board for the future of their women’s team.

Marc Skinner’s side currently sit third in the WSL table, three points ahead of fourth-place Manchester City, who have a game-in-hand on their rivals.

The clubs who finish in the top three of the Women’s top flight will qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Now their Old Trafford debut is out of the way, we take a look at what could be next for the Red Devils’ women’s team.

Regular matches at Old Trafford

The obvious decision off the back of Sunday’s match at Old Trafford would be to make it a regular occurrence throughout the women’s team’s schedule.

There is obvious interest in the team. 20,000 plus supporters isn’t a small figure and is significantly higher than the average attendances at men’s fixtures in the Championship, as backed up by FootballWebPages.

Regular games at Old Trafford would allow for fans to not have to always travel to Leigh Sports Village, just under 15 miles from the Theatre of Dreams, as well as potentially lead to more of the club’s men’s supporters to attend a match.

Build a stadium nearer to Manchester

As mentioned above, United Women currently play at Leigh Sports Village, a ground closer to Wigan Athletic’s DW Stadium than Old Trafford. This in itself says a lot about the facilities available to the Red Devils.

If United’s board are fully invested in their women’s side, then a stadium specific for them would be the way forward.

Everton have done this for their women’s team and located Walton Hall Park just a mile walk away from Goodison Park.

If the Red Devils follow suit, then it would show the team and its fans how much they actually care about them.

More coverage on men’s social media pages?

With the United Women’s game at Old Trafford now over, advertising their fixtures for the remainder of the season and beyond should be one of the club’s aims.

The Red Devils’ men’s Twitter page currently has 30.3m followers, 106 times more than their women’s account, and a platform they could use to help increase attendance at the latter’s games, as well as for the future of its team.

It’ll be interesting to see where Skinner’s side go from here, especially with a top-three finish still up for grabs, as well as the Women’s Euros this summer, with the opening game of the tournament taking place at Old Trafford.