Gemma Donnelly has been on one hell of a journey. And she knows precisely when it first turned in her favour.

It wasn’t in 2019, when the Blackburn Rovers team she leads were finally granted promotion to the FA Women’s Championship – the second tier of English football – after three successive seasons dominating the division below.

It wasn’t even in 2014, when her side narrowly avoided relegation to tier four on the final day of the season, and she vowed to staff “we are never going through that again”.

Her Blackburn Rovers side were twice denied promotion before finally being admitted to the FA Women’s Championship. Boss GEMMA DONNELLY tells Women's Soccer Coaching how she kept her cool - and recalls a rollercoaster of a coaching story