OOn a weekday afternoon in August at Westleigh Park in Havant, there are two main sounds to be heard. One is Portsmouth head coach Jay Sadler shouting ‘Form, form, form’ as he keeps his team on their toes. The other is the whir of an electric drill coming from the scaffold tower that rises above the East Stand on the other side.

The construction work to improve the TV bridge to ensure it meets the broadcasting requirements of a Second Division club is just one example of the efforts taking place behind the scenes as Portsmouth make the transition to fully professional football for the first time following promotion to the Women’s Championship.

“If you asked my wife, she would say that on our cruise I probably spent four, five hours a day working on my laptop and on the phone trying to get everything in order,” Sadler says of this summer’s to-do list. “But the support network from everyone at the club has been phenomenal. We had a few teething issues, as there always are, because we were only a grassroots team 14 months ago, so there were turbulent off-season moments, a lot of stress and late nights. (But) it means everything. That was always the goal. It’s a special moment.”

A nice difference for Sadler is that he is now surrounded by a team of staff, including a new head of football, former Reading and Portsmouth player Brooke Chaplen. Sadler recalls the days when, in his early years as manager, he was the one “booking the referees, washing the equipment and buying cones and footballs and spending a lot of money to support the club in any way I could”. He says: “This year is the first year of my tenure that I can focus solely on football – it has allowed me to be a father and a husband as well.”

He took over eight years ago, when Portsmouth players were still paying membership fees and could use “half a hall for half an hour” at Horndean Technology College in Hampshire to train. His first game as manager, initially as caretaker manager, in 2016 was a 5-1 win over Swindon Town in which former Lewes player Sarah Kempson scored a hat-trick. The following year, Kempson was named global beach soccer player of the year, but nothing about the club’s development resembled a beachside stint.

They had to cancel 17 games in the 2019-20 season – almost all due to flooded pitches – before the pandemic halted the season. They had drainage issues at their previous home ground, which they shared with Baffin’s Milton Rovers, and suffered from persistent wet weather. Fortunately for Sadler, his persistence has paid off.

“I was very lucky to be given a chance as a caretaker manager as a 23-year-old by (then directors) Mick and Ann Williams, two local legends of the Pompey community, and since then it’s been an eight-year journey trying to build the infrastructure,” adds Sadler, whose team won all 11 home league games last season.

“Over the last few years the club has understood that the investment not only helps us but also advances the game. They also create a halo effect in the local community by trying to inspire young girls. From training once a week in a hall to training here four times a week during the day – it’s a pinch-yourself moment but it’s still just the beginning. We want more.”

Sadler is not the only long-serving member of the club. Press officer Max Swatton, who has been with the team for seven years, also vividly remembers his first game, a County Cup match against Winchester, chatting cheerfully to Sadler about a future modelling career while the head coach poses for photos. Even last season in the third division, few of Portsmouth’s games were covered by the media, but that is about to change.

Another pillar of the club is captain Hannah Haughton, the first player whose professional contract the club has announced – a milestone that, she says, “meant everything” to her.

Four months later, the Portsmouth goalkeeper, who won the league’s Golden Glove for most games without conceding a goal last season, says of the promotion: “To be honest, it’s still quite surreal, I don’t think I’ve quite grasped it yet.

“At my first session at the club, half the floodlights weren’t working. We only had about five or six balls and not even drink bottles. I don’t think the girls realise how much this club has changed but that’s a credit to Jay, all his work and his dream to take this team to the top.”

As they prepare for their opening Championship game away to Charlton at the Valley on September 8, Portsmouth are hard at work at their training ground – their home ground – which they share with amateur team Havant & Waterlooville, whose trainer’s dog Buster trots past the staff, tail wagging. The ground also hosts a children’s football camp during the summer holidays, and the happy faces of the youngsters at play are familiar to the Portsmouth goalkeeper.

Haughton is also a PE teacher and although she has signed a two-year contract as a full-time player, her school allows her to continue teaching once a week on her day off. “I wanted to keep my job,” says the 32-year-old, “and I’m so lucky and privileged that they were able to allow me to continue teaching on Tuesdays because I love working at my school. It’s given me the chance to follow a dream and still have a bit of normality once a week.”

Haughton also knows that she and her teammates still have a lot to learn this season, because after winning the title with 86 goals in 22 league games, winning 20 and losing just one, next season will present a very different challenge.

“I have complete confidence in this team. We are determined not only to stay in this league, but to compete in this league and cause some surprises,” said Haughton. “Don’t get me wrong, we are not going too far, we are well aware that it will be physically, tactically and mentally demanding, but I have complete confidence in this club.”

Sadler shares that confidence. “We’ve developed a kind of siege mentality that embodies what this club, this community and this city is about,” he says. “It’s about respecting the teams – there are some established teams with really great resources – but while we respect each and every one of them, we’re not afraid at all.”