Ladies duo attend girls football programme

The Reds pair attended the event alongside Liverpool teammates Megan Alexander and Claudia Walker to promote the programme which has exceeded its annual target for participants.

Since the two-year scheme was launched in October 2013, 20,992 females between the ages of 14 and 25 have played football in sessions which run for 30 weeks of the year, as part of the FA Women's and Girls' Programme.

The Women's Super League trophy was also in attendance as the England internationals met young women who have taken up playing football through the scheme, in sessions run by Liverpool, Tranmere Rovers and Preston North End.

The initiative was created when The FA, Sport England, the Premier League and the Football League Trust joined forces to provide new grassroots football sessions. The target is that by August 2015, 40,000 females will have participated in football through the scheme.

The sessions have been delivered by 87 member clubs of the Premier League and Football League, following £2.4 million of National Lottery from Sport England invested into the FA for the specific development of the female game.

The programme is part of the FA's wider strategy on growing participation figures for women's football and its vision to be the 2nd largest team sport after men's football by 2018.

Dowie said;"It's great to see many teenage girls playing football who have got involved through the programme.

"There are so many more opportunities for young women to play football today and it's especially good to see so many female coaches here today leading the sessions, which wasn't the case as much when I was younger.

"For the younger girls now that they can see the success of the FA WSL and events such as the Germany game at Wembley, it means that they can see a real path for themselves in football."

Kelly Simmons, FA director of national game and women's football, said: "When we launched our Game Changer strategy for developing women's football in 2012, growing participation was a key objective for us.

"Working alongside our partner organisations to deliver such excellent results demonstrates just what potential there is for women's football in this country, at both grassroots and elite levels.

"One of our biggest challenges, apart from attracting new players, is retention, so programmes like this which run for long periods of time, will certainly help us tackle that and help women's football to become the second most-played sport in the country."

Jennie Price, Sport England chief executive, said: "It is great to see so many women and girls taking up the opportunity to play football thanks to this programme.

"Getting women and girls active is really important to us. We know women play less sport than men but most would like to do more. In fact, almost 120,000 women tell us that they want to play football. But the opportunities have to be right for those women to turn ambition into a reality.

"Our investment in the FA for the delivery of Premier League Girls Football and the Football League Trust girls programme is helping us do this by giving young women the chance to try football and get quality coaching in a way tailored to them.

"By working together we can continue to address the barriers to women's participation and close gender gap in sport."