AS she stands on the touchline at Durham Women’s state-of-the-art training and playing complex at Maiden Castle, looking across to the new main stand going up ahead of Sunday’s FA Women’s Championship opener against Watford, Lauren Briggs affords herself the rare opportunity of a delve into her memory banks.

“You know, it’s amazing how far we’ve come,” says the Gateshead-born 25-year-old. “Because you’re involved in it every day, it’s easy to take it for granted, but I’m a full-time footballer, playing for the team I first joined when I was at primary school. Now, we’ve got a brand-new stadium, a full-time coaching team, data analysts and everything. Back then, we didn’t even have our own nets…”

Durham Women’s journey from a cobbled-together grassroots team of mates to one of the leading female football clubs in the country is one of the biggest success stories in North-East sport in the last couple of decades, and Briggs, an all-action full-back, has been there from the outset.

She was there, turning up on a weekday evening, when Lumley Ladies, Durham’s forerunners, were training at a Chester-le-Street school, borrowing equipment and relying on a whip-round of parents to pay for kit. She was part of the evolution that saw Lumley become Cestria Girls, then South Durham Cestria, and eventually Durham Women.

She benefited from the early years of Durham’s tie-up with Durham University, a revolutionary sporting association that helps explain why a women’s club without any affiliation to a leading men’s side can hold its own in a league featuring the likes of Liverpool, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United.

And she was as excited as anyone this summer when Durham made the decision to adopt a full-time training programme, with all the club’s players now able to devote much more of their time and attention to their football careers.

“Everything’s changed out of all recognition,” she explains. “It’s like a different world when you look back to what things used to be like.

“I remember turning up with Lumley and some weeks we wouldn’t have nets, other weeks we might not have enough balls. One time, all the parents had to club together just to get us some shirts printed.

“Even then though, Lee (Sanders, Durham Women manager) wanted everything to be done right. We could have played in a local league but we played in the West Riding League in Yorkshire because it was a much better standard, even though that meant we had to play our home games in Leeds. We used to go on tours to Holland and Sweden, all over, so we got the chance to experience what it was like to play teams from other countries. Right from the start, we’ve done things a bit different.”

That willingness to innovate has been evident throughout Durham’s journey, but it says much about the club’s evolution that while new players and coaches have arrived, a core group remains from the days when a permanent playing facility and a full-time training programme were barely even a dream.

Sanders has been the driving force throughout Durham’s development, with the likes of Briggs and star forward Beth Hepple also permanent fixtures.

“I think that says a lot about the club itself, and the people who have been involved all the way through,” says Briggs. “We’ve changed so much, but in some ways, we haven’t really had a lot of change-around from the beginning right through to where we are now. Members of staff are still here, and there are players like myself, who have been here from the start and contributed to the journey that we’ve had.

“When I was younger, you maybe had that image of, ‘Right, being a footballer is my dream job’, but it was never something that felt possible. To be a full-time player with my home club, that I’ve spent so much time with, is just an amazing feeling.

“It gives you that extra three or four per cent in a game, when you’re flagging in the 90th minute and you just need to make that extra sprint or that extra pass, you find something inside you. I think that’s where our commitment comes from. We’re all in it together, we’re best friends on and off the pitch, and that helps. We’ve spent so much time with each other over the years, so it’s a family.”

Yet that family vibe should not obscure the ruthless streak that also runs through Durham’s DNA. Right from the start, the club has been told it is pursuing a pipe-dream.

Other clubs turn up their noses at the North-East upstarts. There is a feeling that even the FA, with its promotional love-in with Super League giants such as Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United, does not really know what to make of Durham’s university-based model.

Is it really feasible that a club without any male backing could outperform the likes of Liverpool to make it to the top-flight? After finishing as runners-up in the Championship table last season, that is certainly the aim for the new campaign that begins this weekend.

“I think a lot of people still write us off as the smaller club in the division, but I really think this is our time to shine now,” says Briggs. “We do it differently, and I think that makes us even more hungry for success because people say it can’t be done in the way we’re doing it.

“People have been talking and speculating about us ever since we came into the Championship, but we just let them talk.

"We just crack on each week, and we’ve been up there for the last couple of seasons, so that just shows we must be doing something right. Now, it’s time to take that next step, and I fully believe we can do it.”