BIFC Women’s Walking football match report: Cleethorpes | January 2023!

Sunday 8th January saw our new look Women’s Walking Football team taking part in their first
competitive games. We played a strong Cleethorpes Town side, and held our own for large portions
of each game, however unfortunately didn’t come away with any wins.

Manager Lynn Green says:

“We took eleven players to Grimsby to meet Cleethorpes Town – themselves a new squad, put
together to play in the newly formed Women’s Walking Football league. Cleethorpes haven’t played
competitively before and wanted to get some experience in before their league debut next Sunday.

We all met at Barton Town FC’s ground and borrowed their minibus (thank you to them for the loan
of the vehicle!) and it was really good for us all to travel together as a team. When we arrived at the
Ormiston Maritime Academy where we were playing, we found some of the Cleethorpes Town ladies
already there waiting for us. We found them really friendly and accommodating.

We played three games of 12 minutes each: we all felt that we were just getting in to our stride and
time was called, and our travelling supporters all said the same – just as we started to get going, it
was all over.

Lisa made some fab saves between the sticks – and special thanks to her as stand-in goalie, as our
regular keeper had an ACL reconstruction straight after Christmas so wasn’t available to play for us.

Jo scored a fantastic goal in the second game. A mention for Millie as well who is a part of our
women’s inclusive team and played well.

All played well, and I am so proud to call these women my team mates.

You may think that the trip home would be a muted affair, but the opposite was true: all were
buzzing from their first “proper” game, and we were all firing suggestions at how to improve our
performance for next time – the ladies came up with some really insightful comments and I have my
next few training sessions already planned based on what their feedback was on the way home:
mainly positioning, communication, and team work.

We wish Cleethorpes Town the very best of luck in the league this season, and we are already looking
forward to our next friendly which we hope will be arranged for next month and should see us play a
round robin with Cleethorpes again, as well as Louth Town’s new women’s walking football team.”

BIFC Women’s walking football team in their new kit.