WHILE the end of the season is in sight for Oxford United’s men, the club’s women’s side are about to embark into uncharted territory.

On Monday night they will kick-off for the first time in the Women’s Super League (WSL), with the visit of London Bees.

As part of the inaugural WSL2 intake, United are alongside the likes of Aston Villa, Sunderland and the traditionally strong Doncaster Rovers Belles.

Les Taylor, the club’s youth development officer, will manage the side and while there are no illusions about the quality of opposition, after an extensive pre-season, United are ready to go.

He said: “The preparation has been similar to the men’s first-team.

“We’ve got a sports science programme, a nutrition programme, there’s been a lot of effort gone into it.

“We had to when you bear in mind we’re going into the top two leagues in the country and the standard is a big step up to what they’re used to.

“It’ll be extremely tough, we’ll be coming up against teams who have international players.

“There are ten teams in our league and I would’ve thought four would be a similar standard to us.”

United will be playing their home games at Abingdon United’s Northcourt Road this season, starting on Monday.

Midfielder Holly Pickett cannot wait to get started.

She said: “I’ve been here five years now and in my first match we lost 14-0 away at Southampton.

“I’m proud to see how far we’ve come since then and I’m hoping we can do well this year.”