ONE of the most successful football sides in the area have disbanded.

Cam Ladies have been forced to call it a day due to a lack of players after several members of last year’s squad moved away for university.

The club was founded in 1992 and they have won several trophies over the last 20 years, including the South West Women’s Football League Division Two, the Gloucestershire County Women’s League Cup and two County League five-a-side triumphs.

The pinnacle came just 18 months ago when they won the County League after previously being runners-up three times. That earned them promotion to the South West Eastern Division One, where they came up against the likes of Forest Green Reserves, Cirencester and Bridgwater and escaped relegation.

However, chairperson Lina Elliott explained that the committee were left with no choice but to fold after struggling to find a large enough group of players who could commit to that level of football.

She said: “We had a lot of players going to uni, and despite our best efforts to recruit new players we didn’t have a youth setup so we didn’t have anything to feed from.

“We had a few new people but we didn’t think we could compete in the South West League.

“Football is all about enjoyment and we didn’t want to have to drag a team all over the South West to get hammered every week.

“We tried to get into the County League but it turned out it was too late.

“We did everything we could, the last thing we wanted to do was to fold.

“It was a sad decision to make but the committee decided that was all we could do.

“I would like to thank committee past and present and anyone who supported Cam in any way.”

Women’s football stalwart Lynn Carter expressed her sadness at the demise of her beloved Bulldogs.

Carter joined the club in its inception and made over 200 appearances for them before retiring in 2008.

She was also the chairperson for 15 years before standing down after their title winning campaign.

She said: “It is sad because they’ve been going for a long time but there’s nothing they could do without the players.

“I was there a long time. I played for 36 years and most of them were at Cam.

“It’s more difficult in women’s football to keep a consistent side. Men can move around more easily but it’s stricter for women in terms of who you can sign and when you can sign and it did make it difficult.”