Graylingwell girls enjoying their football fix

The football scheme launched a year ago for sport-loving girls on the Chichester estate has really taken off – and organisers have big plans to carry on expanding in the next few months too.

They said: “ We've now gone from one single session to three sessions and gone from coaching eight girls per week to having 160 members.

"We have also recruited six local coaches to help support the growth. The 160 members are split across three groups.

“Our sessions when we started had four-year-olds as our youngest players, whereas now we cater for two-and-a-half-year-olds – right through to girls 12 years of age.

"Over the past year we've gone into five local primary schools to inspire girls to engage in a team sport like football.

“We took 50 of our players to Brighton & Hove Albion to watch their women in the Women’s Super League and we have continued to arrange fixtures for the girls to play in.”

You can see some of the feedback from parents – and sign up – at www.graylingwellgirls.com

The plan for the next year or so is for the project to continue to grow to enable even more young girls access to quality coaching which focuses on full engagement at all times.

The organisers added: The only thing that makes us sad is the fact not all girls in the Chichester area are aware of our sessions.

"We've welcomed so many girls who have never played before who have now become regulars.”