WOMEN'S football is booming at Morton with participation more than trebling since the pandemic and players hoping to get the chance to play home games at Cappielow.
Aileen Campbell, Scottish Women’s Football chief executive, was told the sport was on the up locally during a visit to Morton’s home ground earlier this week.
Senior figures at the club are currently in talks about hosting several of next season’s women’s fixtures at Cappielow, instead of their usual home ground at Parklea, in a bid to build on the sport’s growth.
Ms Campbell spoke to more than a dozen members of the club’s various women’s teams, including some of the Greenock side’s youngest players.
She also heard about the work of the club's charity arm, Morton in the Community, to develop wellbeing and employability in the area.
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She said: “During the close season I wanted to go out and see what clubs were doing in addition to the football on the pitch.
“We said it would be good to come and see what Morton do because we know how much work they do in the community, how embedded they are in it and how involved the girl’s and women’s teams are in that endeavour.
“It was good to get a chat with some of the girls and hear a wee bit more about the community trust’s work.
“It’s always great to see and hear the girls are enjoying playing, there were all different ages and stages but they’re all enjoying the game, enjoying being part of the club and all talking passionately about being able to see a strong first team and how much that gives them a drive to want to push on.
“For a team like Greenock Morton, so embedded in their area, they have to reach out to their whole community and can’t cut off half of it.
“It’s important that they’re offering up opportunities for girls to play football because this area is so important to the club.
“You can hear and see all the girls talking about how playing Morton is so important to them because this is where they’re from.”
Morton Women’s first team manager and head of the girls’ pathway Colin McEachnie was one of those who welcomed the SWF chief to Cappielow and he was keen to tell her about the work the club is doing.
He said: “Our numbers have trebled since Covid.
“We’re trying to align what we do with what the SWF want and make the game better.
“It’s a big thing for us to have them along here, there are hundreds of clubs in Scotland so to have the chief executive come out to visit is massive for what we’re trying to do.
“Our youngest player here is six while our oldest in the first team is 37, and we’ve got around 150 in between that.
“Everything’s positive at the moment and we’ve got a very young first team squad too.
“Their home park is Parklea but we’re in conversations with the club just now about playing some games at Cappielow.
“The gap between the men’s and women’s teams is closing and we’ve had excellent support from Dougie Imrie as well.
“Women’s football is the biggest growing sport in the world, so we need to make sure we’re making football accessible for all.
“The commitment from the chief executive and the board members is there for women’s football and they’re probably more ambitious than anyone.”
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