ANOTHER layer has been added to the Barrow AFC Girls Performance Centre, after successful trials for the new under-11s side.

With teams up to under-14s level already in place at the centre, coaches and officials welcomed close to 40 youngsters to Furness Rovers’ Training Pitch home, looking for the best talent in the area.

A squad of 16, who will be coached by Fylde Ladies player Yasmine Swarbrick, has now been picked to wear the Bluebirds shirts in the 2017/18 season, one of four girls teams to do so.

Performance Centre boss Tony Callister was delighted with both the numbers and the standards of the players who took part in the trials, seeing it as a sign of the booming nature of girls football in South Cumbria in recent years.

“We’re really pleased,” he said. “We had 39 girls, which was excellent, and we were really pleased by how everything went on the night.

“The standard was really good, and it became a very difficult decision to make choices on who would go forward.

“I think it is testament to the officials of the different clubs in the area who run girls teams. Dalton, Barrow Celtic, teams like that who are really progressing with girls football – it is making a real difference in the area.

“These clubs are really helping to make a difference.”

Callister is hopeful the example set by Manchester City Women’s Super League ace Georgia Stanway, as well as new Liverpool Ladies recruit Aimee Everett and other high-class South Cumbrian products can continue to inspire youngsters to take up the game.

He added: “I’m pleased with the progress we are making with the girls performance centre, because girls can play just as good as boys. We’ve got an international superstar from this area in Georgia Stanway, which speaks volumes for girls football.

“When the girls can look up to senior girls like that, it’s marvellous.”

The plans are to have junior girls teams at all age levels up to under-16s, with the prospect then of under-18s and even open-age sides being formed under the Barrow AFC banner, reflecting the set-up on the boys side.

Callister believes that is a real possibility, and said: “Each year we will back-filling with a new under-11s and moving everyone up one age-group.

“We need to keep the structure matching the boys.

“Having a women’s team would be ideal, and just as we have an under-18s boys, we would like to take the girls into that level as well.”