How Doncaster Rovers Belles helped propel Lionesses trio Millie Bright, Mary Earps and Beth England to Women's World Cup final

Two-time national champions, six-time FA Cup winners and runners-up on a further seven occasions.

This time next week they could boast three World Cup winners among their former players.

Lionesses captain Millie Bright, goalkeeper Mary Earps and forward Beth England all spent their formative years with Belles, then in the top flight.

For those familiar with the club's story, it will come as no surprise to hear their introduction to the team was borne out of financial adversity.

John Buckley, who now coaches in the Doncaster Rovers academy, spent ten years in charge of Belles from 2003 to 2013.

"At first we had really good players, then we started losing some of the bigger players," he tells The Free Press.

"I felt I was going to have to go down the youth side.

"I went to Sheffield United's academy and picked up girls like Beth, Jess Sigsworth, Millie and Kasia Lipka.

"I was playing them in the first team, I think Millie might not have even been 16.

"We were playing against good teams, but kept surviving.

"I sit back and think 'we did alright'. You don't realise when you are in it."

Bright has gone on to win five WSL titles with Chelsea, the club she joined from Belles in 2015.

Together with Earps and England, she lifted the European Championship trophy with the Lionesses last summer.

England has won four WSL titles and reportedly became the most expensive player in the league's history when she joined Tottenham Hotspur from Chelsea in January.

Did Buckley foresee their rise all the way to the very top?

"I could see that they were going to be good players. Could I see Millie being captain of England? No,” he confesses.

"The one thing you would always get off her, regardless of who you were playing against, she would make sure that player didn't perform.

"Year on year she stepped up another foot on the ladder. I understand why they made her captain, she's got a super strong mentality.

"All three of them have, you don't reach that level without having a strong mind.

"Beth was in and out of the team and did well, but she was a softer character. It took her longer to break in."

Two years after Bright and England joined, Belles snapped up their England youth international teammate, 18-year-old Earps, for the 2011/12 season.

"She has outstanding potential and a very bright future ahead of her," Buckley said at the time.

"Mary was a character," he recalls.

"In the nicest possible way, she absolutely loved herself. Her confidence in herself was unbelievable.

"She was a good keeper, no doubt, but even as a young kid she would question you. She's proved to anyone who thought she wasn't top-drawer."

Buckley is still in touch with several of his former players and hopes to reunite them for a get-together to reminisce about better days for the Belles, who now play in the fourth tier of women's football.

"I'm really, really pleased for them and just hope they can win it,” he says looking ahead to Sunday’s final.

"Some of the players I had at Belles were brilliant."