West Lothian youth girls' football team going from strength to strength

A youth girls’ football team has gone from strength to strength as they prepare to close out their season.

Murieston United under-12s have attracted so many new players in recent months that they’ve had to start a second team - and have had great support from parents and the local community with a number of sponsors helping to ensure the girls are all kitted out.

The club had one under-12 team - Blues - before an influx of young girls contacting the club interested in taking up the sport. That eventually saw an under-12 development team - Whites - formed to help provide a gap for those with no experience.

Secretary Deborah Ledwidge commented: “At the end of last year, we had a lot of movement between the girls’ teams with players moving up ages or leaving but from January we had a high number of girls coming along who wanted to start playing football.

“We found the gap was just too big from starting to learn to play in nine-a-side matches so we created a development team. Three of the girls stepped up from under-10 but the rest are new to football.”

Both teams now play in the South East leagues, with the Blues being nine-a-side and Whites playing seven-a-side.

With the additional team and extra players came added running costs for the club, too, and Deborah has thanked parents and sponsors for their help.

She said: “Our parents have always been a great support for the girls and David Jones, one of our dads, is owner of Force Window Cleaning. He stepped up and is the girls’ main team sponsor while another two days are the match day sponsors with their businesses - CB Plastering and Redbloc Design. The support allowed us to get the girls all new match strips.”

She added: “Our parents also helped with fundraising to add to