THE recently formed Bingley Belles FC are making great strides in their early development as a club.

A trio of former Bradford City and Park Avenue coaches - Stephen Rushforth, Anthony Joyce and Marcus Matthew – established the club in January with a long-term view of making Belles one of the best women’s football teams in West Yorkshire.

Rushforth and his coaching team have accepted that it will take time for the project to reach its full potential, but with the knowledge and experience the trio possess in relation to women’s football at local level, there is a real belief that their plans will soon be set in motion.

Across the first three training sessions which have been held at Zara Sports Centre, Bingley, the club have managed to attract around 20 players to the training base, while on Friday the West Riding FA officially accredited Bingley Belles into the local leagues, where they will start in Division Four of the West Riding County Women's Football League.

Reflecting on his start to life with the Belles, coach, Rushforth commented: “It’s been a positive start to life with the club, for sure.

“We’ve had a few training sessions already and the response has been really good, especially to say that the regular season hasn’t finished yet.

“It’s surprised me how much quality we’ve had attending already, and it’s made us as a coaching team excited for what we could be given time.

“We always knew when we started this project that we had the experience, knowledge and contacts to give it a proper go, and so far, we’ve been able to use that to our advantage.

“We’ve had players come to the sessions that we’ve coached and worked with before, but we’ve also had several new faces come to training. The quality on show has surprised me and it’s exciting to see.”

With Bingley Belles only operating a first team for the time being, Rushforth admitted that the squad might require some fine tuning if the numbers at training continue to rise ahead of the new West Riding season kicking off.

He said: “As the current season hasn’t fully finished yet, it’s hard to predict or say how many numbers we may be looking at getting into training ahead of next season.

“We’ve had talks with some players regarding joining, but it’s hard for them to fully commit when they are still playing in the current season for their respective teams. So, we expect more movement and more players to join when this season is over.

“When it comes to it, we might have to fine tune the squad and have a look at which players we take into the competitive season.”

Having only just formed as a club, Bingley Belles will enter the fourth division of West Riding County Women's Football League, but Rushforth is hopeful that it won’t be too much of an obstacle when encouraging players to join.

He said: “If you’re a new club, you always have to start somewhere and work your way up, that’s part and parcel of it.

“We might have to convince players to make a step down in leagues, but we’d make sure that they were fully committed in the project if they were to join.”

For further information on how to get involved with Bingley Belles, contact Stephen Rushforth (first team coach) on 07493 526552.