Fulham's women relegated from Southern Division

The rise and fall of Fulham, Europe's first full-time professional women's team, has been completed with relegation from the Southern Division to the South East Combination, the level from which 10 years ago they began their ascent to the top of the Premier League. The descent set in even as they were winning the domestic treble in 2003, the Fulham owner, Mohamed Al Fayed – having bankrolled three years of professionalism – deciding to downsize the operation because the Football Association's promise of a professional league by that year had not been kept. Seven years later, and with the FA in the process of launching a Super League that will boast full-time professionals, the Cottagers – no longer part of Fulham FC having been cast out by their parent club in 2006 – are back where they started and worse off in terms of support. "We are now run by two parents and the managers of our first and second teams," the chairman, Paul Hayes, said. "The players have to pay £150 a year to play for us and we have to fundraise to keep the club going. That will be more difficult as a combination club and we will lose players to other clubs too, so the future doesn't look great." "It's a real pity what has happened to Fulham," said the England winger Rachel Yankey, who became the country's first professional female player when she left Arsenal to join the Cottagers. "I still have a soft spot for the club. I was going mental for them [the men's team] when they played Juventus [in the Europa League]." Now back at Arsenal, Yankey today scored the goal that gave the Gunners a 1-0 win at Everton to move to within a point of the leaders Leeds, who lost 1-0 to third-placed Chelsea. Blackburn beat Millwall 2-0 to move out of the relegation zone.