WHITCHURCH United Football Club have been awarded a grant from the Football Foundation’s ‘Grow the Game’ scheme’ to support the development of Girls’ Football.

Funding will be provided over the next two years to cover costs for equipment, kit, pitch fees and coach development.

The funding will enable the club to grow its set up for girls, specifically increasing the numbers of teams it fields from two to three in the coming 2018/19 season.

Girl’s football has developed gradually at Whitchurch over the last three seasons.

Two years ago a handful of girls embarked on a pilot course of indoor training, the next year this was developed this into regular training nights and this past season two teams have trained together on Wednesday evenings and played weekly league football on Saturday mornings.

This coming year the three teams will join the newly formed Hampshire Girls Youth Football League.

Leigh Smith the lead coach for Girls Football at Whitchurch said: “It’s great that the ambitions of Whitchurch for girls’ football has been recognised by the Football Foundation.

"We are very grateful for funding that will enable us to increase the numbers of girls playing football in Whitchurch and its locality in coming years."

There are still places available for girls to play next season, under-12 (School Year 7 in September 2018), under-11 (School Year 6 in September 2018) and under-10 (School Years 4 and 5 in September 2018)

If interested, please contact Alison Cooper on alisonandleigh@btinternet.com