Retiring Ayr United striker Clare Docherty nominted the Stevenston-based club.
An Ayrshire girls football team is celebrating after scoring vital new equipment from ScottishPower.
The renewable energy company became the Principal Partner for Scottish women’s football last season.
TASS Thistle Girls were nominated for the award by retiring Ayr United striker Clare Docherty.
As part of ScottishPower’s partnership with the sport, they’re providing six kit packages to grassroots club across the country, featuring bibs, cones, water bottles and Puma boots and footballs.
Players from SWPL clubs were invited to nominate a community club they value for their work to further developing girls’ youth football.
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Clare nominated TASS Thistle Girls, whose coach Rebecca Mitchell-Welsh received the new equipment at the team’s training ground in Stevenston from Lauren Stirling, a project coordinator with ScottishPower.
Clare said: “I’ve nominated TASS because years ago in this area there was no girls team until they allowed girls to play in their boys’ team, allowing the game to grow.
“We’ve now got around 100 girls at training with a dedicated girl’s pathway.
“When I first started, we wore our own kit to training, and at the weekend our game strips were donated by a boys’ team.
“Thankfully the game has massively improved since I was younger and it’s nice to see the girls getting such great quality kit thanks to ScottishPower supporting the cause so much.”
TASS coach Rebecca added: “Grassroots clubs are more than just football, they’re about setting foundations with the girls around health and wellbeing and building friendships too.
“It’s absolutely fantastic to have this new kit donated for them. As a community club, we do a lot of fundraising and sometime the girls find it harder to get sponsors so to have this from ScottishPower, it makes a real difference for us.”
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Keith Anderson, Chief Executive of ScottishPower, said: “We want to energise women’s football for both current and future generations and build a community of players that inspire even more people to play and enjoy the game.
“That means working with our partners at SWF and the SWPL to help clubs and players overcome barriers to their growth and operation.
“By providing training kit and asking those players at the top of the game to nominate a community club to receive it, we’re making sure that everyone can benefit from this partnership, whether at the elite end of the game or those all-essential grassroots.”
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