Hannah Dingley: From university lecturer to Forest Green’s new manager

This article was originally published as part of a Women of the EFL feature in March 2021. It has been repurposed to reflect the news that Hannah Dingley has become Forest Green’s caretaker manager after Duncan Ferguson’s departure. The 39-year-old will take charge of the League Two side in a friendly against non-League Melksham Town on Wednesday.  

The road leading to Forest Green Rovers’ New Lawn Stadium is named “Another Way”. It is a sign of the commitment owner Dale Vince has made to running his club differently through his well-publicised desire to make the Gloucestershire outfit as environmentally friendly as possible.

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Serving vegan pies and building a new eco stadium made out of wood is not the only way in which the club have been leaders in change in recent years — they became the first club to appoint a female head of academy in 2019, Hannah Dingley.

“It sounds awful, but I thought, ‘If I’m going to get an opportunity anywhere, I’m going to get it at Forest Green’,” says Dingley, who leads a team of 25 staff overseeing around 140 young players in the academy. “It’s a bit like trying to run quite a small school and we’re really lucky here that the club are really keen and invested in promoting the academy.”

Dingley has been a key recruit as Rovers have established an academy in recent years to match their progress into the EFL. After working at Burton Albion, Notts County and as a university lecturer, overseeing players in age groups from under-sevens to under-18s is a big task as the Category Three academy looks to produce players for the first team.

“We’re really lucky here that we’ve played 15-year-olds in the first team (Jack Carter and Finn Bell) in the EFL Trophy to give them opportunities,” she