LIONESSES fever is sweeping the nation after England women’s World Cup success in Canada, but closer to home a girls’ team from Northwich are proving they can be winners too.

Davenham Dynamoes under 12s reached the end of the season laden with silverware, and can boast of a perfect record in the Cheshire Girls’ League.

It is a just reward for progress on the pitch over the past three years, according to manager Chris Wadsworth.

He helped to form the team when his daughter, Ellie, started to show an interest in football.

“They’ve not done badly at all have they?” he said.

“At the start, all of the girls were new to football. 

“I’ve been a coach for 12 years, and Ellie used to come along and watch. Then, out of the blue, she decided she wanted to play.

“We did a few taster sessions at a local school, and there was quite an appetite for it. 

“Out of 25 girls playing now, a lot came to that first session.”

Davenham’s record was unblemished in the Cheshire Girls League’s Champions section for under 12s following 16 successive wins.

Earlier in the campaign, they won half-a-dozen games in a row to top the Dane League for the same age group.

They have enjoyed knockout success too, winning at the Skem Athletic national tournament, the Blackpool Sevens, the annual Northwich Victoria Juniors’ five-a-side competition and at the Cheshire FA Youth Fustal Festival.

England’s run to the Women’s World Cup semi finals this summer has thrust the girls’ game into the spotlight, and Wadsworth says improved access to the sport is giving youngsters a belief they can now follow in their idols’ footsteps.

“It’s very accessible,” he said

“That makes it more real to our girls.

“Most of them have brothers that play football, and they seem to have been brought up on the lads’ game. There’s almost an attitude of ‘if they can do it, then so can we.’

“But the interest is increasing and you now have mums and dads talking about women’s football. 

“I’d go into the office [during the World Cup], and a lot of the conversation revolved around what was happening.”

Cheshire is proving a particular hotbed for the women’s game and leading clubs are beginning to take an interest in Dynamoes’ rising stars.

“Girls’ football in the county is very good,” said Wadsworth. 

“It’s well-run, and we tend to find that we do quite well when we venture out of Cheshire to play in other competitions.

“In the course of winning some of the cups, we’ve beaten teams from professional clubs like Oldham Athletic, Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers.

“I’m starting to get calls about clubs coming to watch our players, but the route in is usually when their name is put forward for trials as part of Cheshire FA’s development set-up.

“We have six girls already making up part of that programme.”