Next week sees the start of open trials for the Women and Development teams at Oxford City and we caught up with Head of Women’s Football Aliyah Anthony to discuss the amazing progress that is happening across all of the female football programmes at the MGroup Stadium.

“It’s incredible” she told us “When I started playing as a little girl it was a bit of a novelty. People kind of thought I’d grow out of loving sport and it was only because I’m stubborn that I stuck at it and proved them wrong by playing as many sports as I could! There were very few football teams to play for, no role models within the game and absolutely no pathway to build a career within football for young girls. That has completely changed now.

“I‘m proud to work for a club like Oxford City where there is a proper commitment to Women’s football. I played here and then moved onto the coaching side of things and the whole club is structured towards giving opportunities to talented footballers, whatever their gender.

“Last season our Women’s team reached two cup finals and challenged at the top of their league but they did that with maybe half the squad having progressed through the Velocity programme which offers girls the chance to continue their education while playing football and training every day; we won the Tactic League with our Velocity u19 side last season.

"That’s growing all the time but so is the interest from outside the club. We have trials over the next couple of weeks, either for the First Team or the Development Side and almost 100 players have applied! We will welcome them, we will see how they do in the trials and hopefully they strengthen our squad for what should be another positive season.

“Last season’s success for the First Team came under Connor Walton who has stepped down as Manager but will still be involved in the coaching within Velocity: there’s that pathway I spoke about!

“We are expanding and have a JPL side and a Grassroots side at each age group next season. That will see the number of female players playing for Oxford City each week rise from 400 to 600 next season, which is amazing to see.

“We put out a job advert for the Manager role and the response was amazing: so many strong candidates who can see what we are building here. Whoever joins will have a great platform and the support of everyone from the owner and board right across the staff.

“People assume that we end a season, have a break for a couple of months then just pop back in and start again. They couldn’t be more wrong! Our age group sides are still playing tournaments, we have the busiest trials we have ever held, we are looking at everything from recruitment to the matchday experience: it’s never been so busy.

“I love doing what I do and love what we have achieved over the last couple of years but the exciting thing is making those plans alongside everyone here for where we want to be in the future…”