The one-on-one shooting drills have concluded, the coaches are collecting the footballs and maybe some of the watching parents are keen to get back inside in the warm, but none of these young players want to go anywhere just yet. A long, eager queue has formed. They all want their picture taken first with the England forward Lauren James.
“Sometimes I forget how many people look up to me,” says James, pleasantly surprised, after helping out with the grassroots session at Worcester Park in south-west London. Perhaps it is also easy for the rest of us to forget that the Chelsea No 10, who has played 24 times for the Lionesses, only recently turned 23.
