Preston North End Women’s Football Club was formed at the start of the season, seeing Preston North End Ladies FC and Preston North End Women’s Junior FC join together as one club.
Preston North End Community and Education Trust have been providing resources and staffing support to assist the running of the club.
With the two clubs forming as one, there is now a pathway for junior girls representing Preston North End to move into open age football while still representing the club.
Speaking of the Trust’s involvement, PNEWFC assistant manager and NCS coordinator for the Trust, Sam Livesey, said: “With the Trust being inclusive and community based, the idea is to give a pathway for girls for football all the way through from U6s right the way through to adult age.
“Having the trust on board has really helped us link up with PNE juniors to provide that pathway so girls can see the progression of where they’re can go.”
Manager Michael Wilkinson added: “I think it’s brilliant for girls in the area, I think they were destined to have an end product for the juniors starting form a young age, building up to U16s as they needed an open age girls team to move on to and we were happy to provide that; we obviously needed some form of constant recruitment into our team.”
The team have made a competitive start to their season in the North West Women’s Regional Football League, the sixth tier of women’s football in England.
Captain Nicola Berrington has played for PNE for several years and as a North End has been delighted to see the Trust’s involvement in the club.
She said: “We’ve got a lot more backing behind you can see there’s obviously more support for the young players, it’s given us all a more positive outlook.
“Obviously, in previous seasons we’ve struggled for players a little bit so to have that support and just a bit of something behind us to say that we can grow, young players can come through is obviously really good. The mental attitude and the outlook of the players is so much better.”
To find out more about Preston North End Women’s Football Club and to learn how you can become involved in any capacity, be that as a player or as a coach, please contact sam@pne.com.