It’s an overcast Saturday morning on Arrowe Park.
Parents line the perimeter of the pitch, bundled up in winter coats - some even equipped with camping chairs- as Oxton Ladies take on Appleton Avengers in the Cheshire Girls Football League. In the middle of the park, 14-year old Lily is dictating the play, emulating her footballing idol Thiago Alcantara as she scoops the ball over top to tee up her teammate.
1-0 Oxton Ladies.
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“When Lily started there was nothing out there for girls wanting to play,” her mum Katie says as she watches on proudly from the sidelines. “It was just boys, boys, boys. It’s come such a long way and football is her whole life.”
Lily spent six years in Liverpool’s centre of excellence before making the switch back to Oxton, where she first started kicking a ball around at six years old. Almost every waking minute is dedicated to football, with her evenings taken up with training sessions and her weekends spent playing or refereeing.
It was her dad, Carl Curthbert, who was behind setting up Oxton Ladies, driven by the dearth of opportunities out there for young girls looking to get involved in the game.
“I work in a primary school and our girls were really keen to play football,” Carl said, “so that’s how the team came about originally 11 years ago. We were involved with a boys group and we realised there were 20 boys teams and one girls team. We ended up just breaking away and making it girls only.”
In 2018, Carl and Oxton’s club secretary, Mike Abbot, were two of the people involved in working with the Cheshire FA to develop a system that allowed grassroots girls football teams across the county to play as part of one centralised structure, massively enhancing their development.
From there, the Cheshire Girls football league was formed and, over the past four years, has grown to the point where more than 1,200 girls compete in a league comprising nearly 100 teams.
A stone's throw from Arrowe Park, inside the Activity for All sports centre, dozens of girls are also in action in the Under-7s league. It marks a huge departure from the early years of Oxton Ladies, when the girls were forced to compete against boys, many of whom had already being playing in a formalised league structure for a number of years.
“For four years, our girls had to play the boys and they were getting beat every week which was really demoralising,” Carl said.
“ Now we have nine Under-7 teams, which has never happened before. We now have a girls only league and it’s nice just seeing hundreds of girls getting together to play each week. There’s definitely been a big change within the last few years.
“We like to think Wirral as a beacon for girls foobtall. Teams come to us and want to get involved.”
England’s heroics at the Euros over the summer has seen more girls than ever before looking to get involved with football. Debbie Cassidy has spent years on the sidelines watching her daughter Izzy play for Oxton Ladies, and says the Lionesses’ success has been a huge boost for the women’s game.
“It’s so inspiring for the girls because they can now look up and see a role model,” Debbie said. "Izzy watches every type of football and having someone she can aspire to is massive.
“The opportunities she’s had even playing for a grassroots club have been incredible. They’ve gotten to travel to different countries to compete in tournaments and it’s like a big family here.”
For 14-year-old Lily, her performances for Oxton have even earned her a trial for England's youth set-up, and the teenager is already eyeing a big future in the women's game.
"I feel like playing at grassroots level has helped to develop my game," Lily said. "But I want to go over to America and play in their college system. It's my dream to be a professional footballer."
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