Askam United chairman Sean Hagan believes the new grant that will allow them to renovate their facilities will let the club to continue to open itself up to the community.

Askam successfully applied for a grant of £18,000, which has come through Grantscape and the Orsted Walney Extension Community Fund, which is being put towards their ‘Football for All’ programme.

In the future it will include the improvement of the disabled facilities at their Duddon Road ground, but for now the focus is toward putting the money towards a refurbishment of the club’s changing facilities for players and officials.

Hagan said: “When I took over as chairman in March 2018, we were a young committee and we said we need to get kids’ football back in Askam after Duddon Sports folded.

“We needed to get junior football back in the area but we couldn’t have done that without volunteers, so we’ve got that back up and running.

“The Askam and Ireleth Rainbows and Brownies now use the clubhouse as well as do an Askam dance group as well.

“We’re opening the site up to other groups because we want to have a real community feel, rather than just be a football club.”

Askam’s fortunes have improved significantly on the pitch as well with their first team third in Division One of the West Lancashire League after finishing bottom of the table last season.

Hagan said: “It’s been a big turnaround and all the players are on board because they can see what we’re trying to do off the pitch. You can see that on matchdays because we’re getting more people from Askam coming down watching, having not known the club was there before.”