Morpeth Town FC offer summer football sessions for women with a view to starting an adult female team

The club, through Juniors chairman Paul Barwick, has introduced a summer series of training nights to start the process of building pathways from the junior girls section into adult football, and increasing participation among age groups that fall outside junior football.

With a thriving girls section, it’s an important next step in the development of the sport, making this first session a notable milestone for the club.

“We had 20 women turn up for the first session, which was very encouraging,” said Barwick.

“It was more than enough to make it worthwhile and bodes well for the future.

“With the ages ranging from early 20s to early 60s, the interest is clearly there.”

He added: “From a juniors perspective, we need to create a pathway into adult female football for our current juniors.

“Secondly, there’s no female football offering in Morpeth – that had to be addressed and we saw this as a starting point.

“People will have different motivations for coming, but for those wanting something more competitive, we’d love to move towards a female team representing Morpeth Town, however, for those that just want a bit of fun and exercise and a kickaround with some friends, we can cater for them too via regular sessions.”

Some excellent feedback from the first sessions will, hopefully, lead to a healthy turnout over the summer.

One participant said: “I had the time of my life.

“It’s hard work though, there’s no time to think about what to do when you’ve got the ball.

“Roll on next week!”

“I really enjoyed it.

“I’m not very fit, but hopefully I can build that up,” said another.

A third commented: “I really enjoyed it…I’d like to come again if it’s going to be the same sort of thing.”

Running every Tuesday over the summer, on the 3G pitch at Craik Park, it costs £3 per session and you don’t need to book in advance.

Participants are asked to take football boots (rubber or plastic studs only) or astro turf trainers.

For more information, contact Paul at [email protected].