Girls' football is on the up at Warrington Rylands with grant support

WARRINGTON Rylands are using important grant funding to expand the provision of women’s and girls’ football at the club. The Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division club are aiming to establish a girls’ junior section from under sevens upwards, following the successful launch of a women’s open-age side this season. The club were successful in receiving extra funding from league sponsor Pitching In’s Trident Community Foundation to provide crucial support to the initiative.

The fund, which offers money to clubs at Step 3 and 4 of the non-league pyramid for community projects, will help Blues achieve their lofty aims. “Being extremely ambitious, within 12 months time I would like for us to have a full female pathway,” said Warrington Rylands co-owner and director Andy Martin. “We've currently got no junior women’s teams so to do that in 12 months may be asking too much, but longer than 12 months and looking at a two to three year plan, we need girls’ football teams at every age group.



“We want to facilitate football for girls from under sevens right the way through to open age.” Rylands already have an established men’s pathway and hope adding a greater access to football for women can only embed them further in the local community. “As a club, we've been very male heavy, and there's a great opportunity.

There's a lot of clubs out there in the women's section that are struggling,” explained Martin. “We've got the footprint, the foundation, the profile, to make a good go of it and make it successful. “The women play on Sunday and the men play on Saturday.

There are a lot of lonely and vulnerable people going out on a Saturday afternoon to watch the football and it gives them something to do. Having a women's team allows them another opportunity to go. “Similarly, us being able to bring families into the club because their daughter plays for one of our girls’ teams is equally as important.

“We get the kids playing, and we then get access to the parents, and there's a massive opportunity in terms of tapping into what all the parents’ challenges are. “We will regularly see it now with some of the other programmes, we just spend time talking to mum and dad and find out they’re struggling with something, and as a club we've got access to a resource that can help them. “We've already done that, which is amazing.

So football is a facilitator for growing our community and giving us an opportunity to impact more people.” The initiative stands to offer extensive benefits to the local community, far beyond the football pitch as well as simply providing a space for girls to find their feet in the beautiful game. Yet none of the work Warrington Rylands are looking to do in the women’s football space would be possible without the grant.

“To do anything like this, you have to consistently do it. When you rely heavily on volunteers, which we do - and they do a great job - there's always that reliability aspect,” said Martin. “If someone's not getting paid to do something, they can very easily stop.

“The funding allows us to invest in kits and equipment so that the girls can play, but it also allows us to guarantee programme delivery by paying for coaches or paying for coach qualification and education.” Having set up their first open age-group women’s team at the start of the season while also running a Wildcat girls’ session, Warrington Rylands have learned a lot about what it takes to facilitate a successful provision. “You can't treat women's football the same as men's football, it's completely different.

So it's been a learning curve,” said Martin. “They’ve gotten better as the season has gone on, but we'll have two open-age women's teams next season. So that's developing in itself, which again is a fantastic credit to the work that's being done.

“It's very much at the stage of getting them playing, not necessarily competing. We can't go into it expecting we're going to have the best of the best. “Just the fact that we've got them participating is a success in itself, isn't it? The results will follow but success in the early stages is participation.

” Find volunteering opportunities near you at https://pitchinginvolunteers.co.uk/.