We’d love a place to call home

By Simon Wells

LET US PLAY: Young players of East Goscote United need a permanent home

A LEICESTERSHIRE girls football club with more than 180 players on its books is appealing for help to find a permanent home following a new surge of interest prompted by the Lionnesses’ World Cup campaign.

East Goscote United (Girls and Women) FC was founded 11 years ago and has grown to run 10 different age group teams from age four upwards.

But with their facilities often claimed by more established boys sides, the club are struggling to find nearby pitches on which to play.

And chairman Darren Foster says the success of the Lionnesses in Australia was putting more pressure on the club to simply find a place to call home.

“We’ve been gradually developing the club for a decade or more but when big tournaments happens we see a lot of girls take an interest in the game for the first time and join the club,” Foster said. “Something similar is happening this summer with this World Cup.

“On the one hand, it’s great. We know from experience that once someone shows interest, the vast majority stay with us for years and it’s a joy to see their desire to learn and the fun they have but on the other hand, it does create issues because it’s not easy to find pitches on which to play, especially within easy reach of our part of Leicestershire.

“We often find that the best local pitches are used by well-established boys’ teams. Now, there is nothing wrong with that and we don’t want to create a girls versus boys situation, but it is very much the case that longstanding arrangements are often in place for boys clubs that sometimes don’t have anything like the number of players that we are attracting.”

Club founder Simon Riley added that if the club was given or was able to buy a piece of land, it could establish a permanent base on which all of its sides could train and play. “If we were able to get a commitment of this kind – and we realise it is a very big ask – then we would be able to accommodate everyone who wants to get involved and meet the kind of interest in football that we are seeing from girls,” he commented.

“Also, if we had a piece of land, we should be able to potentially access external help from organisations that support the development of grass roots football, very much placing us on the next level.

“We’re very keen to hear from anyone who may be able to help us directly or who has any ideas. We have a lot of girls who want to play football and sometimes not enough facilities for them all to do so successfully.”