Celebrating Girls' Football Week

12 November 2017

We have just reached the end of Girls' Football Week, a national campaign organised by the Football Association to engage as many girls as possible in the game, with a range of activities taking place at clubs and schools across the country.

This forms part of the FA's efforts to double female participation in the sport by 2020. As a brand new football club dedicated to getting more girls playing, we are proud to do all we can to help achieve this goal and had a busy week planned.

It all kicked off with our brand new Under 8's taking part in their first ever friendly against St. Albans City Youth. Although our girls have only been training for a few months, they got stuck in, learned a lot and really enjoyed themselves.

It's such a privilege to see these little ones taking their first steps on their football journey and to be part of making it happen. When we started out we never imagined we'd come so far so fast, but it is moments like this that make it all worthwhile.

We also held an open session for girls interested in trying football for the first time, and we were blown away by the response. So often it seems that girls just need a nudge to see that football is 'for them' and then there's no holding them back.

With some of our older girls on hand to help out, along with several players from our sister club Watford Ladies FC, it was a fantastic opportunity to showcase what girls football is all about, from grassroots right through to the elite game.

This was followed by our Under 11s league match with near neighbours Bedwell Rangers, an exciting contest that was also significant for being the first meeting between the oldest youth football club in Stevenage and the newest.

Our festivities continued with a Family Disco that evening which saw players, friends and family from across our different teams and age groups come together for a fun night out and a chance for everyone to get to know each other a little better.

Finally, we were delighted to be asked to take part in a tournament hosted by Tottenham Ladies before their home game against Doncaster Belles.

Although they may have been a little tired from the party the night before, it was a great opportunity for our girls to test themselves against some different teams, meet the Spurs Ladies players and coaches and be part of a celebration of girls football.

All in all it's been a great week, seeing so many happy faces and so much enthusiasm for playing the game. You know you must being doing something right when despite the biting wind, freezing cold and driving rain your girls are still out there giving it their all.