'Women players tend to hold grudges but men just forget': Pauline Harley on why she quit Glenrothes Strollers Ladies FC
Having quit as Glenrothes Strollers Ladies FC gaffer last month after three-and-a-half years at the helm, Pauline Harley has revealed the reasons why she is pleased to no longer be managing a team of women.
Harley, whose three-and-a-half seasons at Strollers Ladies had included earning promotion to League One in spring 2025, has now been installed as assistant boss at a younger age group, as she helps out at Dunfermline-based Bayside Girls and Women under-18 girls side.
“Strollers Ladies had done really well in League One (they finished eighth on 30 points from their 24 league matches) so my decision to resign wasn’t really to do with the football performance of the team,” said Harley, who was raised in Templehall.
“It was more for myself in terms of trying something new.
"It’s nice getting away from women in terms of managing a women’s football team is not as easy as a men’s football team.
"Women hold things against each other and don’t just forget whereas men just say: ‘Sorry pal, everything’s fine’ after they have an argument.
"And there wasn’t really a good pathway in the girls’ section at Strollers and you need that nowadays.
"There weren’t youngsters coming through so it was really quite difficult because of that.
"So I wanted a change by going to a club where I felt the structure of the girls section was the best in Fife.
“Bayside Girls and Women – who originate from Dalgety Bay – are based in Dunfermline now.
"The manager Paul Murray had asked me if I wanted to come and help out with their under-18 team who are currently sitting top of their league and are the current Scottish Cup and League Cup champions and they really want to defend these trophies.
"A lot of the girls have started at Bayside before coming back as they’ve not made it at teams like Motherwell or Hibs.
"The first couple of times I watched them I was really impressed.
"I am there at least until December as that is the end of the girls season, so hopefully I can help them manage to win three trophies.
"They are a cracking bunch, a great team.
"They have been together a few years some of them and all know each other’s games.”
Despite the acrimonious-sounding nature of her departure from Glenrothes Strollers Ladies FC, Harley insisted that she feels no bitterness towards her former employers.
She said: “I don’t feel upset about how it ended there, I’m not bitter.
"It was a great journey we did in the space of three years.
"A lot of people could only dream of the amount of success we had.
"And that’s what I’ll be remembered for hopefully and the lassies that were involved.
"We had a lot of great times and nobody should ever take that away. It was amazing.
"It seems so far in the past now.
"You know what football’s like, you get your haters and stuff like that.
"But what I was thinking of was: ‘Where’s next?”