Blackpool FC Community Trust column: Female football talent is Emerging

We are now well into our second month of delivery at our FA Girls’ Emerging Talent Centre (ETC).

Now that we are back up and running, we are starting to create extra opportunities for our players.

Sessions have been intense from the get-go and the quality the players have shown has been exceptional.

We pride ourselves on the standard of the players in our programme and have been extremely impressed with all of them since the relaunch.

In September, we nominated some of our players for a ‘Discover My Talent’ event: a national programme highlighting the best players to be put forward for the England junior squads.

Three of our six ETC players who entered were highlighted to be monitored moving forward.

Our girls are also busy representing their district teams with 14 featuring for the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre U13 and U15 teams.

The U15s had a 9-0 win against Wirral District this month, with our ETC players scoring eight of the goals.

We are looking forward to all our teams playing against local grassroots teams before the end of the month.

Our Under-10s, Under-12s, Under-14s and Under-16s will all represent our ETC against local boys/mixed teams.

We recently invited a talented Australian Girls’ Academy Team to play against our U14 and U15s.

Every one of our players put in an impressive performance and fought for a well-deserved win, scoring lots of goals in the process.

All the girls were hungry to hunt the ball down and press with aggression, as well as being positive in possession and attacking with numbers.

Thank you to Global Football Network for the fixture as it was great to meet their players and parents.

We also welcomed our new potential U9s group, as we plan ahead for next season’s U10s.

We invited 13 girls, who have been identified through our Female Football Development Centres from our various girls’ football sessions – or who have been recommended to us through our relationships with local grassroots clubs.

We are extremely excited about this group and will be aiming to give them more training and playing opportunities throughout the season.

Ninety per cent of these girls live locally and play for teams in the Poulton Primary District league.

In addition to this, we brought all of our age groups to play against a local boys/mixed grassroots coaching set-up.

It was a great opportunity to challenge our girls, try out new tactics and formations, and allow them to play various positions throughout the matches.

Our girls won at U10, U12 and U14 levels, while our U16s put in a brave effort despite losing.

Darcy, Charlotte, Liv and Ruby’s work in November has seen them win various trainer of the week awards.

Liv, who captains the U14s, has been chosen with team-mate Abby for the Lancashire Schools squad at that age group, while Cerys was named in the U16s’ line-up.

For more information about Blackpool FC Community Trust, call 01253 348691, visit www.bfcct.co.uk or follow BFCCT on social media.