INTERNATIONAL footballer Amy Turner was at Stanley Park on Friday (Nov 6) to offer encouragement and advice to members of a new football development centre.

The new centre, for talented young female footballers from Chippenham, has opening at Stanley Park to help train potential players of the future from local primary schools.

The girls are chosen and invited to train weekly at the centre, which is backed by the Wiltshire FA, and will be given the opportunity to progress into playing for Wiltshire teams and possibly, one day, the national squad.

Stanley Park manager, Pete Hussey, said: “We are trying to close the gap for talented girls in Chippenham so we can put them forward to county football.

“We wanted to make sure what we were delivering was done properly and done right. This has been something we have been concentrating on for the last eight or nine months.

“We want the girls to get as far as they can, you can never say a level you want them to get to.”

The newly opened centre is the result of Stanley Park coaches Paul Harvey and Lia Painter working for the last three years in Chippenham’s primary schools running football coaching sessions with around 900 girls.

On Friday England and Notts County defender Amy Turner met with the girls, in years three to six, and conducted a question and answer session during their one-hour training session.

She said: “The girls getting to train and play with other girls is certainly a good opportunity.

“There’s a real enthusiasm from them, it’s important for them to enjoy it and to develop that enthusiasm for the game at an early age.

“I think woman’s football as a game has come on leaps and bounds over the last five years, it’s more popular and more people know about it and watch it on the TV.

“It’s going in the right direction hopefully it continue to grow and develop.”

The Wiltshire FA is working with the Stanley Park coaches to develop the centre to give girls the opportunity to progress to more advanced levels such as the regional squads.

Coach Paul Harvey, who will be running the centre with Lia Painter, said: “This is a great development for girls’ football which is already very strong in Chippenham.”

“We’ll be working with the girls on a weekly basis and helping them develop and progress. It would be fantastic if a female footballing star of the future were to come from Chippenham.”