An update from Head of Community, Keith Hicks, on the club’s girls teams…
Dale’s under 9s girls team will take on Corpus ROCS from Oldham during half-time at Saturday’s League One fixture v Burton Albion.
Both teams take part in the North Manchester Girls League, but meet up regularly at the Chapel Road Complex on Saturday’s. The games are usually fairly even so we are expecting a good encounter at the weekend.
Meanwhile, the club’s under 9s and under 13s recently competed in the finals of the North Manchester Girls League Cup.
Meanwhile, the club’s under 9s and under 13s recently competed in the finals of the North Manchester Girls League Cup.
The younger team was beaten 1-0 by Bury Girls after overcoming Corpus ROCS 2-0 in their semi-final following from wins over Heyside Kinders (3-0) and Ashton Pumas (1-0).
The under 13s went down 1-0 to Heyside Angels having seen off Curzon Ashton Galaxy (2-1) and Middleton Athletic (1-0).
Keith Hicks commented: “We are extremely proud of all our teams, who after only a few months together, are in good positions in their respective Divisions.
“Hopefully there will be more cup progress at the end of the season.”
Last weekend saw five matches played across the age groups, with the pick of the lot being the Under 9s who were 3-0 winners over Denton Girls.
There were also wins for the Under 10s - 3-1 against AFC Manchester, the under 12s - 7-0 against Heyside Angels Skylarks, as well as the Under 16s who were 7-2 victors against Chadderton Park.
Keith added: “This is all down to the joint Female Football Development programme which has seen an investment of around £2.4m over the first two years from Sport England funding. It’s allowing Community Trusts at Premier League and Football League clubs to deliver season-long coaching programmes, aiming to bring 40,000 new female players into the sport.
“We have five teams operating at under 9s, 10s, 12s 13s and 16s, which proves that the money invested at Rochdale AFC has been well utilised.
“Over sixty girls are training and playing in structured football every week with more teams hopefully planned for season 2016-17.”