Mel Lawley Focused On Helping Burnley Achieve Promotion From FA WNL

FA Women’s Premier League Premier Division – Burnley Women vs Middlesbrough – 17/08/2025

KEVIN HAYDEN/BURNLEY FC

The former Lionesses’ midfielder, Mel Lawley, has been persuaded to drop down two tiers to help FA Women’s National League (FA WNL) side Burnley achieve promotion into WSL2.

After starting just three games in the Women’s Super League (WSL) last season, the 31-year-old Everton midfielder has gone out on loan to Burnley for the season where she will be re-united with Matt Beard, her coach for three years at her previous club Liverpool. Beard is one of only six coaches to manage a team to the WSL title, having led Liverpool to success in 2013 and 2014.

Beard has however been out of work since his contract at Liverpool was terminated by the club in February after a poor start to the season. Over a decade since those WSL titles, many felt Beard’s time as a top level coach may have passed. His appointment by third tier Burnley raised eyebrows but illustrated the ambition of the north-west club who this summer made the decision to move from a hybrid to a full-time professional model.

Lawley, who has won 12 caps for England, has followed Beard to Burnley, the highest-profile of a number of signings by the club. Speaking to me after her first-ever game in tier three of the English game, Lawley explained how the charismatic Beard convinced her to play in the FA Women’s National League.

“I think, playing however many years with Beardie, I know how he likes to play. I know him as a person, he’s an amazing man. He wants you to be a better person before you step out on the pitch. Working with Beardie, you want to fight for him, play as well as you can for him. So obviously when he messaged, and I knew the caliber of players that were coming in with him. It was a no-brainer for me.”

“When you come into Burnley, you see the aspirations that this club has got. It’s an amazing set up to be here for me and Beardie, he wants the best for Burnley. I think we’re coming together and hopefully pushing this club to where it should be. Our main goal at the moment, is getting promotion, but we’re taking it game by game.”

At Burnley, Lawley has once more taken possession of the number 14 shirt, which she has worn at three of her previous four clubs. She told me the number holds no special significance for her but is just something she feels comfortable with. “When I was at Birmingham, I loved that number. That’s when my career started going off. I’ve just stuck with that number because it brings me good memories.”

Lawley made her senior debut as a 17-year-old in the UEFA Women’s Champions League playing for Arsenal. Since then she has played her entire career in the top two flights of the English game. After spells at Bristol Academy and Birmingham City, she signed for Women’s Super League champions Manchester City in December 2016.

At the end of that first season in Manchester, Lawley started for the team in the Women’s FA Cup Final at Wembley. Playing up front alongside the FIFA World Player of the Year, Carli Lloyd, Lawley helped Manchester City defeat her old club Birmingham City 4-1 to win her first senior medal. She told me it was probably the highlight of her career so far.

Lawley played alongside five members of the England team who became European champions on the same pitch five years later. “Also, looking back,” she told me, “playing with that caliber of players probably made me the player, and the person that I am today.”

Then aged 23, Lawley was part of a generation of Manchester City players including Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh who were expected to dominate the English game for years to come. “Obviously training, week in, week out with them, being the youngsters, they were always pushing me. Once I stepped into City, I knew they were going to be exceptional players, but also amazing people as well.”

That year, Lawley also made her international debut, the 199th woman to play for the Lionesses. She scored on her first start at home to Kazakhstan and was a regular throughout 2018. However, she was not included by Phil Neville in his squad for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and never played for England after that.

She is honest enough to admit that seeing her former team mates go from strength to strength on the international stage affected her. “In my younger days, when I was obviously not getting picked for England, I had a bit of ‘oh, I wish I was there’. But when I watched them this year (win a second consecutive UEFA Women’s Euro), I had so much pride and I was so happy for them.”

Now Lawley is playing alongside many women who who were last season juggling their sporting career with jobs. “Even coming into training with the girls, it’s actually struck me the talent that’s here. I think the game is just a bit more transitional. Obviously, the quality is still the same. Yeah, I really enjoyed it, to be back out there and scoring goals.”

“We’re training five days a week, we’ve got gym four times a week. Obviously, we have Saturday off gym. Some of the players have had to give up their jobs to be able to be in here full-time, but they’ve all taken it in their stride and they’re all doing really well.”

Lawley captained Burnley during their pre-season friendly against Lazio, a role which highlighted her position as a senior professional within the club. However, being a leader on the pitch does not necessarily come naturally to her. “It never used to. I spoke to Beardie, he explained that I’m kind of adapting my role, so I think I’m becoming more of a leader which I’ve never, ever been in the past. I’m really enjoying it, I’m thriving off it and I just want the girls to do their best. If they need help from my experience, I’m always open for them to come and have a chat and help them in their career.”

With the proposed expansion of the Women’s Super League, more teams are set to be promoted up into the top tiers of the English pyramid. For clubs in the Women’s National League, this opens up the possibility of an extra promotion place. The teams finishing second in the Northern and Southern divisions will play-off for the right to join the champions of each league in WSL2 next season.

Lawley scored in Burnley’s opening league game of the season, a 5-0 win at home go Middlesbrough. This weekend, she will travel to play Wolverhampton Wanderers, the team that narrowly failed to achieve promotion from the FA WNL last season finishing just three points behind champions Nottingham Forest.

For Lawley, the match at Telford will hold extra significance. Growing up in nearby Kidderminster, she was a Wolves fan as a young girl. She has never before faced them in a competitive match but now the team she supported growing up may be Burnley’s biggest challengers to a promotion place.

“I’m a Wolves fan through my family, my nan and grandad used to take me to the games but I haven’t actually been for maybe ten years. Yeah, it’s obviously going to be a good game, I’m looking forward to it, but we’re going out to get the three points and beat them for promotion.”

Either way, Lawley’s loan agreement will finish at the end of the season and she will return to Everton. For now, she tells me, she is not thinking about her future. “I think I’ve got to focus being the best version of me. At this moment in time, I’m focusing on Burnley and doing the best I can for them, helping them get promotion and at the end of the season, I’ll obviously sit down and see what I want.”