Workington Reds pan-disability football team, only formed in September, is preparing for the new season – with increased numbers.
The campaign starts on April 11 with the first fixture in Carlisle and with games slotted in all the way through to September.
Indeed, from small beginnings last year, the group has now grown and has 17 players training enabling Reds to enter two teams in the League.
It is run on a festival-style basis with three separate sections and Reds will be involved in the middle and lower Leagues.
The teams are very much part of their community offering and improving opportunities for disabled footballers has been high on their recent agenda.
They have now been given a significant boost with the award of a grant by the Trident Community Foundation, established by Northern Premier League partners Pitching In, to continue the expansion of the pan-disability set-up.
Workington vice-chairman and community director Richard Lewthwaite said: “We were approached by somebody who wanted to come on board and run a team last year.
“We made the effort and created the team with a vision of going forward into 2023 and getting them into some competitive leagues.
“We still want to do everything in our plan, which is to be fully inclusive, but we need help with the funding for things like that.
“It’s a rural community where we are and we’re 30 miles away from where the events take place for the pan-disability team and it comes down to the funding of transport.
“It quite simply wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for this TCF funding – we just couldn’t afford it as a club to maintain our other commitments and develop a pan-disability team as well.”
The Trident Community Foundation, which awards grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 to Step 3 and 4 clubs with the aim of launching new or expanding existing community initiatives, has helped Reds before.
The Reds previously received funding in 2021 for the Friday Night Project, weekly football sessions for local children, and Lewthwaite is confident this latest integral cash injection will provide another boost.
He added: “We were so pleased with the ability to access that funding that we decided to look again.
“The structure of the clubs that play at the level we do, it can make it difficult for them to go and access funding. The Trident Community Foundation just ticks that box.
“It’s about the level of football you’re playing at. It’s good that somebody’s backing that area of football and helping clubs to develop.
“It’s so difficult for clubs to keep going. I’m sure we’re not the only club in that position and just to be able to know that we’re comfortable with funding, that’s superb.
“The Friday night community football project ran right through to the November and was a success.”
There are now over 2,200 affiliated disability teams that mainly play across the 36 county pan-disability football leagues within England.
These teams and leagues form the foundation of the disability player pathway and provide an environment in which players can play competitively on a regular basis.
