Stoke City's FA Centre of Excellence for girls, is part of the FA talent identification programme, and it reflects the professional image of the ladies team by producing talented young players between the ages of 10 and 16.

The Girls train at Clayton High School every Monday evening. The Centre of Excellence has four teams at U10, U12, U14 and U16 level.

The girls receive quality coaching from F.A qualified coaches including Mick Barnes, Matt Milford, Antony Donnelly, Daniel Hine, Rachel Blunt, Charlene Chapman, Sehrish Mumtaz.

This season sees the Centre recruit new volunteer assistant coaches for each age group, who include Cassie Hyde, Laura Hagan, Gemma Purton, and Laura Jones.

Warren Leat who is working towards his 'A' License and has vast amounts of experience at Women's and Girls Football is the Director for the Centre. We also have a full-time Administrator, Kath Tranter, working for the Girls Centre of Excellence.

Goalkeepers receive specialised training from our top Goalkeeping coach, Danny Alcock and the girls can access our fully qualified physiotherapist Joanne Cato on site during both training nights and matchdays.

The teams play in the Centre of Excellence League for the West Midlands Region. Stoke City's home matches are played on Saturday mornings at Roe Lane, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

Other teams that Stoke City girls will be competing against in the league include Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Coventry City, Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Kidderminister Harriers, Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Derby/Chesterfield. The league has raised the standard of play for girls by providing quality opposition every week.

The Centre has been very successful in gaining recognition at International level. Former Centre of Excellence player, Becky Hall has played for England U17/U19's and more recently from our U15's Lucy Ridgeway attended the England U15 training camp.

Although we work closely with the FA in the development of the game at grassroots, we are unfortunately not in a position to take on players at our Centre of Excellence unless they have played at club level or at another centre of excellence.

We recommend that you ring the FA on 0207 745 4545 for more information and details on your local clubs. Stoke City scouts do visit clubs around the country and this is generally the best way to progress through the ranks.