BURNLEY FC GIRLS & LADIES The 2015/16 Season marks the 20th anniversary of Burnley FC Girls and Ladies. The club was founded in 1995 by John Lister, with just 15 players, who trained in the “old barn” behind Turf Moor and played their home games in the shadow of the beautiful Gawthorpe Hall. We’ve made great strides since then and are now proud to be one of the largest women only football clubs in the country. We have over 160 players aged five and upwards, registered to play for our two open age and eight junior teams. Our First Team play in the North West Women’s Regional Premier League, whilst our Senior Development Squad was promoted to the Lancashire FA Women’s Division One, at the first attempt last season. With the exception of our Under 9s and 15s, who play in the North Valley and Burnley Unity Youth League, all our junior teams play in the West Lancashire Girls Football League, which was named National Charter Standard League of the year in 2013 by The Football Association. FA rules for teams up to and including our Under 11s, require that the results of games and league tables are not published. This puts the emphasis on player development, rather than doing whatever it takes to get a result! However, our younger players still take their football seriously, and love to win just as much as those in the older age groups! As founder members of the Football League, Burnley is a town with a rich footballing heritage, and has the highest fan-to-population ratio in Britain. Local residents clearly take great pride in supporting their team, as well as their town, and a Saturday trip to ‘The Turf’ to cheer on the Clarets is a tradition that spans generations. Whilst there, they also get the chance to cheer on our girls, as our younger teams take part in mini-games on the pitch at half time. We’re equally proud of our girls’ successes. This season, seven players have been called-up to represent Lancashire Schools’ Under 14s. The girls - one player from our Under 13s, three from our Under 14s and three from our Under 15s - were selected from over 70 players who attended the trials at Accrington and Rossendale College last September.
They were thrilled to be chosen for the final squad of 20 players. Off the field, we have fun too! At our annual Fun Day in May the girls (and some of the parents!) took part in a Dribbleathon around the Barden Athletics Stadium. This was followed by an unlikely 4-2 victory for the Managers and Coaches in a match against our open age squads. Our annual Presentation Evening takes place every May at Turf Moor. For 2015, former England international goal-keeper Rachel Brown-Finnis was an inspiring guest of honour, presenting awards and posing for photos with our girls. Previous guests have included former Burnley players Kieran Trippier and Brian “the Beast” Jensen. Following the success of the England women’s team in this year’s World Cup, it’s certainly a very exciting time for the women’s game. We also had our own successes in 2015. Our Under 9s Clarets won the league and cup double and a combined Under 15s/16s team reached the final of the Lancashire FA Cup. The Senior Development Squad secured promotion to the Lancashire FA Women’s Division One, and there were summer tournament successes for several of our junior teams. This season our Under 15s currently lie second in their league, our Under 16s are through to both the County and League Cup finals and our Under 10s will face Academy Juniors of Bolton in their League Cup final. Running a not-for-profit club of this size is an expensive and time consuming operation. We rely on a dedicated committee of volunteers to oversee the smooth running of the Club. All of this would not be possible without the generous support of several local businesses whose generous sponsorship helps to keep player subscriptions as low as possible. This is vitally important, as our sole aim is to provide a safe and secure environment in which girls of all ages and abilities can play and enjoy football. You can follow the progress of our teams on Facebook and Twitter. And we’re always looking for new players from age five upwards. More details can be found on our website: pitchero.com/clubs/burnleyfcladies
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