The Women’s Super League 2 kicked off its 2026/27 campaign on 4 September, and it did so with a genuinely fresh look on the touchline.
Last season’s top three — Birmingham City, Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic — were all promoted into the newly expanded 14-team WSL (Birmingham and Palace automatically, Charlton via the inaugural promotion play-off), which means WSL2 has needed to refill its ranks and reshuffle its coaching staff. Newcastle United and Sunderland provide a bit of derby spice, Watford and Wolverhampton Wanderers arrive fresh off promotion from the FA Women’s National League, and Leicester City drop down after relegation from the top flight.
Here’s who’s in the dugout for all 12 clubs this season.
Bristol City — Charlotte Healy
Healy arrived at Ashton Gate in the summer of 2025 after six years on Manchester United’s staff, working her way up from Academy Manager to become Marc Skinner’s assistant with the first team.
In that time, she helped United reach the Champions League for the first time and lift the Adobe Women’s FA Cup in 2024. It’s her first head coach role, and she replaced Stephen Kirby after City’s return-season finish in the second tier.
Burnley — Jackie Bachteler
The American arrives with a genuinely international coaching CV, having played and coached in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan before moving into the NWSL as an assistant at San Diego Wave, where she helped the club win the 2023 NWSL Shield and the 2024 Challenge Cup. Bachteler also worked as a scout for the US women’s national team.
Taking Burnley into their first WSL2 campaign, this head coach promises a physical and forward-thinking side.
Durham — Willie Kirk
The Scot’s experience includes having managed Bristol City (winning promotion at the first attempt) and Everton, where he led the Toffees to an FA Cup final, plus a spell as Manchester United assistant.
His time since has been rockier, however. Leicester dismissed Kirk as head coach in March 2024 after an internal disciplinary process found he had breached the club’s code of conduct (reports linked this to an alleged relationship with a player).
His subsequent move into Swedish football saw Linköping relegated from the Damallsvenskan in 2025, the club’s first relegation in its history. Durham will be hoping his experience is enough to counter recent inadequacies, but this appointment by an independent women’s football club raised concerns among fans about both integrity and ambition.
Ipswich Town — David Wright
A former Wigan Athletic and Crystal Palace defender, Wright stepped in as Ipswich’s interim boss in January after Joe Sheehan’s departure, with the club bottom of the table, and steadied the ship enough to be handed the job permanently that April.
Wright had previously coached in Norwich City’s academy system and briefly took caretaker charge of Colchester United’s men’s side.
Leicester City — Rick Passmoor
Passmoor took interim charge of Leicester’s WSL side last September after Amandine Miquel’s shock sacking, arriving from a role as West Ham’s assistant coach and with previous head coach experience at Leeds United.
The manager lost out to Charlton on penalties in the playoff, meaning he starts life in WSL2 with unfinished business and a squad that learned the hard way how fine the margins are.
Newcastle United — Tanya Oxtoby
One of the more decorated names on this list, the Australian was assistant to Emma Hayes at Chelsea during a run of league and cup doubles, has managed Bristol City and Northern Ireland’s senior women’s team.
At the very start of her coaching career, Oxtoby managed Nottingham Forest. She now finds herself in Newcastle on a contract through 2029, with turning their big crowds into WSL2 results the immediate task at hand.
Nottingham Forest — Tom Mallinson
Mallinson has been on Forest’s coaching staff since 2009 in various academy roles, most recently leading the men’s U18s, before being promoted to the women’s first team on a three-year deal in June.
It’s his first senior head coach job, replacing Carly Davies, and the club has framed it as a reward for a strong track record developing players internally.
Sheffield United — Stephen Healy
Healy leads a Sheffield United side aiming to move up the table after a tough few seasons, in a division where his squad’s results this campaign will go a long way to defining how the term is viewed at Bramall Lane.
Southampton — Simon Parker
Parker’s return to Southampton, where he began his head coaching career with an impressive display in the National League, was billed as a homecoming.
In between, he took Lewes to their best-ever second-tier finish and steadied Blackburn Rovers from a spell as relegation candidates before their withdrawal from the league.
Parker picked up WSL2’s October Manager of the Month award last season after wins over Birmingham and Portsmouth.
Sunderland — Melanie Reay
Reay’s story is about as local as it gets: she came through Sunderland’s ranks as a player, twice topped the Northern Division’s Golden Boot, then followed her cousin Alan Shearer’s path across to rivals Newcastle before returning to Sunderland as assistant coach in 2015 and being promoted to head coach in 2017.
Watford — Renée Hector
Hector is another appointment built entirely from within. She is a former Watford player who moved into youth coaching, headed the club’s under-23s, and was part of England’s Elite Coach Programme before being given the reins of the first team following promotion from the National League.
It’s a bold, homegrown call from Watford as they adjust to the step-up.
Wolverhampton Wanderers — Dan McNamara
McNamara has been in charge of Wolves’ women’s setup since January 2018, for most of that time combining the role with his day job as an RAF aircraft technician, before finally being made full-time in 2024.
Under his managerial guise, Wolves climbed through the pyramid and twice missed out on promotion by the finest of margins, so leading them into WSL2 for the first time is the pay-off for nearly seven years of building.
With one automatic promotion spot up for grabs and a play-off place besides, this could be one of the most competitive WSL2 seasons yet — and the coaching merry-go-round of the summer has left almost every club with something to prove.
