Howden Clough Girls JFC

🧡🖤 FINAL FRIENDLY BEFORE THE SEASON! 🖤🧡

What a way to finish our pre-season! ⚽️👏

Even after that late goal, we left feeling really proud of the girls today. 🧡🖤

The hard work throughout the summer is starting to pay off. We were competitive, organised and, in large parts, dominated the game, creating plenty of chances and playing some fantastic football.

Most importantly, we’re now seeing things we work on in training being replicated on the pitch — exactly what we want to see as coaches. 👏

The defence were organised and aggressive, midfielders rotated brilliantly and protected the back line, while our attacking players caused the opposition plenty of problems.

It was a big battle against a good side who had clearly strengthened since we last played them. They’ve added some real quality, but the girls stepped up to the challenge and upped it by 10! 💪🔥

🏆 POTM – VIOLETTE & IVY 🏆

An outstanding centre-back pairing today. Strong, organised and composed against a quality attack. Everything we’ve worked on in training was evident in their performances.

Ivy has come on so much in just a few games — fantastic to see! 👏

⚽️ MOLLIE – another two goals! Brilliant to see her confidence growing after being converted into a striker.

🧤 TIERNEY & BETHANY – a huge well done for stepping up in goal today. Both were superb and showed exactly what being a great teammate is all about! 👏

⭐ Special mentions to CASSIE, SUMMER & SCARLETT WATSON, who all had excellent games.

And great to see MARYAM back playing with the girls! 🧡🖤

But once again, every single girl deserves credit. The teamwork is improving, confidence is growing and our football has come on massively.

We’re heading in the right direction… now it’s time to take all that hard work into the season!

🔥 BRING ON THE SEASON! 🔥

Training Wednesday — the hard work continues! ⚽️⚽️⚽️

🧡🖤 LET’S SHOW EVERYBODY WHAT WE CAN DO! 🧡🖤

🧡🖤 NEXT IMPORTANT MILESTONE… SQUAD NUMBERS DECIDED! 🖤🧡

The contracts are signed… ✍️
The bags have been handed out… 🎁
And now there’s one more VERY important job to tick off the list…

THE U8 GIRLS HAVE THEIR SQUAD NUMBERS! ⚽️🔥

As part of their signing-on day, the girls each had the exciting opportunity to draw their squad number for the upcoming season. 🧡🖤

And now we can’t wait to see them step onto the pitch in their BRAND NEW KITS for the very first time! 😍

We know every single girl will wear that Howden Clough badge and represent our club with PRIDE, PASSION AND A BIG SMILE! 🧡🖤

And speaking of the new kits…

👀 WHO ARE OUR NEW SPONSORS? 👀

A HUGE thank you has to go to our TWO AMAZING SPONSORS who have made the girls’ brand-new kits possible. 🙌

We can’t thank you enough for supporting our team and helping us give these girls something they’ll be incredibly proud to wear.

But we’re keeping you waiting just a little longer…

🤫 THEY’LL BE REVEALED VERY SOON!

Keep your eyes peeled, because their logos will soon be proudly displayed across the front of the girls’ brand-new shirts! 🧡⚫️

The contracts are signed.
The squad numbers are decided.
The new kits are almost ready.

NOW LET’S GET THIS SEASON STARTED! 🔥⚽️

🟠⚫️ BRING IT ON!!! ⚫️🟠

📝🧡🖤 A DAY TO REMEMBER… U8 GIRLS SIGNING ON DAY! 🖤🧡📝

Today was a VERY special day for our U8 Girls as they attended their very first ever SIGNING ON DAY! 🥹⚽️

For the first time, our girls put pen to paper and officially signed their one-year contracts with Howden Clough. ✍️🧡🖤

Of course, being a Howden Clough player comes with a few important terms and conditions…

⚽️ Always try my hardest and listen to my coaches and teammates
🤝 Be kind, polite and respectful to everyone
👏 Encourage my teammates and celebrate their success
💪 Never give up and always show a positive attitude
❤️ Have fun and enjoy playing football!

And in return, their coaches promise to:

⚽️ Help them improve their football skills
💪 Encourage them to always do their best
🎉 Make training fun and enjoyable
🧡 Support them and help them learn

And because every new signing deserves a signing-on bonus…

Each girl received a Howden Clough branded bag packed full of goodies! 🥰

A HUGE thank you to Eliza’s Grandma for kindly funding the bags for all of the girls, and to Andrew at Tag Embroidery for providing them. Your generosity helped make the day even more special for the girls. 🧡⁠

But today wasn’t just about contracts, signatures or football…

It was about THE GIRLS. ❤️

A chance for them to spend some time together away from the football pitch, get to know their new teammates, laugh, have fun and start building the friendships that will hopefully stay with them for many years to come.

And that’s what grassroots football is all about. ⚽️

We’ve watched this group grow so much already, and today felt like the start of another exciting chapter.

We can’t wait to watch them learn, develop, grow in confidence, make friends, score goals, celebrate together and create memories throughout the season ahead.

So enjoy it, girls.

Enjoy every training session.
Enjoy every match.
Enjoy every goal.
Enjoy every laugh.
Enjoy being part of the team.

Because one day you’ll look back at these photographs and realise just how special these moments really were. ❤️

THE ADVENTURE STARTS HERE… 🧡🖤

🟠⚫️ BRING IT ON! ⚫️🟠

🧡🖤 A PERFORMANCE TO BE PROUD OF 🖤🧡

Firstly, a huge thank you to all the girls for the respect they showed during today’s minute’s silence. It was a very personal moment for Chris following the sudden loss of his close friend and former Clough teammate, Pally. The girls were incredibly respectful and then carried that spirit onto the pitch. ❤️

⚽️ Onto the football…

The scoreline may not have gone our way, but the performance certainly gave us plenty to be proud of. Both coaches agreed that the girls have taken another big step forward today, with the opposition coach also complimenting how much we’ve improved.

There was more composure on the ball, less panic and some fantastic moments of passing and movement — including some lovely through balls to create opportunities. Playing higher up the pitch, we were strong defensively, combative in midfield and a real threat going forward.

Most importantly, the girls are starting to believe in themselves. They’re learning that success comes from working together as one team, supporting each other and playing for one another. 🧡

👏 Player of the Match
⭐️ Skarlett – excellent first touch, control and passing range, showing a fantastic desire to keep improving.

⭐️ Bethany – battled brilliantly all game and showed real composure after winning those battles, making good decisions with the ball.

A special mention too for Evangeline, who made her debut today. She had to be patient in an end-to-end game but came on with great energy and gave us another positive outlet. 👏

There’s still plenty to work on — positioning, movement, runs in behind, ball movement and fitness — but the progression is clear.

Top draw effort girls. Keep working together and the rewards will come. 🧡🖤⚽️

See you all at training Wednesday!

⭐ U8 GIRLS PLAYER OF THE MATCH ⭐

It was honestly so difficult to pick because everyone was fantastic, so tonight we had a Home PoTM and Away PoTM.

Home PoTM — Myla 🏆

After being away for a few weeks, Myla came back tonight and absolutely smashed it! She ran, ran some more and then somehow found the energy to run again! 😂

She was fearless in the tackle and made some brilliant runs to drive us forward and create chances. Fantastic performance! 👏🔥

Away PoTM — Jazmine 🏆

This was chosen by the opposition coach and was thoroughly deserved.

If tonight really was Jazmine’s first ever football match, you genuinely wouldn’t have known! She worked incredibly hard, looked confident on the ball and even did a great job in goal. 👏🧤

Well done Myla, Jazmine and every single girl tonight. 🧡🖤

🧡🖤 SO, SO PROUD OF THESE GIRLS TONIGHT! 🖤🧡

Honestly, we couldn’t be prouder. They gave absolutely everything tonight and, more importantly, you could see them learning, growing in confidence and smiling throughout! ⚽️🥰

We started a little slowly, probably due to nerves, which is completely understandable when you remember just how new all of this is for most of them.

But as the game went on, they got stronger and stronger. The confidence started to grow, we created some great chances and we were really unlucky not to find a goal.

And that’s the important thing right now. It’s not about results — it’s about getting these girls comfortable on a football pitch, learning the game and enjoying themselves. Some teams we face will have girls with more experience, but there is absolutely nothing to worry about. We’ll get there too! 💪

At the moment they’re having to take in so many instructions at once:

“Stand there!”
“Run there!”
“Attack!”
“Defend!”
“TACKLE!!!” 😂

But every week they’ll understand a little more, and eventually it will all just click. ⚡️

That was our final friendly before we head into the season in two weeks’ time! We’ve entered two teams into the league and we’ll share more information about how everything will work over the next week or so.

For now though, girls — be proud of yourselves!

You were brilliant tonight. ❤️⚽️

🧡🖤 KEEP LEARNING. KEEP SMILING. KEEP PLAYING. 🖤🧡

⭐️ A DAY TO REMEMBER AT THE ACCU STADIUM! ⭐️

What an incredible experience for some very lucky Howden Clough Girls as they visited the ACCU Stadium to watch Huddersfield Town Women make a fantastic start to the season with a 5-1 victory over Loughborough Lightning! 🔵⚪️⚽️

The girls got to experience the atmosphere of matchday first-hand and witness a footballing masterclass from the Town players — something they can aspire to themselves as they grow, develop and hopefully one day become part of the game at this level. 💪✨

And it didn’t stop there! 👀

Our lucky girls were given some incredible behind-the-scenes access, with the amazing opportunity to be matchday mascots and walk out onto the field of play alongside the players! 🥹⚽️

After the final whistle, they were also able to spend time with the players, grabbing photos and enjoying the chance to interact with their footballing heroes. 📸❤️

It was an experience they’ll remember for a long time, and they absolutely loved every minute of it!

Who knows… fingers crossed that one day it could be them walking out onto that pitch! 🌟⚽️

⭐ U8 GIRLS - PLAYER OF THE MATCH — ELIZA SWEENEY ⭐

What a performance from Eliza today! 🧡🖤

From the very first whistle, Eliza battled for every single ball, putting in some fantastic tackles and showing incredible determination all over the pitch. 💪⚽️

She was also a constant threat going forward, impressing us with some brilliant dribbling as she carried the ball up the pitch and took on the Ackworth defence. 🔥👏

But the biggest moment of all came when Eliza made history for the Howden Clough U8 Girls by scoring our FIRST EVER GOAL! 🥳⚽️

After winning the ball down the left, Eliza drove forward, cut across the box and created an opening before finishing low into the bottom-right corner. What a moment! 🙌🔥

A goal that will go down in the history of this brand-new team — and one we’re sure Eliza and the girls will remember for a very long time! 🧡

An absolutely deserved Player of the Match award. ⭐

Well done Eliza — keep working hard, keep enjoying your football and keep making memories! 👏🐯

⚽🧡 FIRST EVER GOAL! 🧡⚽

A HUGE moment for our Howden Clough U8 Girls as they got off the mark for the very first time against Ackworth! 🎉🙌

And it was Eliza Sweeney who wrote her name into the history books! ⭐

Eliza won the ball down the left-hand side before cutting across the box, creating an opening at goal and calmly finishing low into the bottom-right corner! ⚽🔥

The celebrations said it all! 🥳

Everyone at Howden Clough is extremely proud of the girls and this fantastic milestone. The first of what we hope will be many, many more goals to come! 🧡🖤

Well done girls! 👏🐯

U8 GIRLS - FIRST EVER MATCH v ACKWORTH! ⚽️

What a brilliant first match for the girls today! 👏⚽️

So many positives to take from it, but especially the confidence they showed as the game went on. Seeing them get stuck in, encourage each other and grow in confidence was fantastic to see.

There’s plenty for us to work on, but that’s what training and games are all about. For a first match, against a very established team, they should be extremely proud of themselves — lots of positives to build on! 💪❤️

Well done girls! 👏👏

⭐ Player of the match ⭐ - Eliza
What a performance from Eliza today! She battled for every ball, won loads of tackles and impressed us with her dribbling up the pitch 💪⚽️

And to top it all off, Eliza made history by scoring our first ever goal as a team! 🥳🔥