Former Scotland star Alan Main helps Moray Girls Football Club celebrate a successful year and seize opportunity to play for Elgin City women's team
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Elgin City's Borough Briggs stadium was full of team spirit when Moray Girls Football Club's players, parents, and volunteers gathered to celebrate the team’s achievements at their annual awards ceremony.
The club fielded five teams of 10-16-year-olds across Moray and Aberdeenshire, welcoming the likes of Stonehaven, Inverurie and Peterhead to their home turf.
Chairman Mike Duncan leads the club’s committee, group of coaches, and the 75 registered female players across the teams.
He said: “After a hard-fought year, we all were looking forward to celebrating our success at the end-of-season awards night.
"We have two teams of under 10-year-old girls, an under 12s team, an under 14s team, and an under 16s team, and every player leaves with a trophy.
“The coaches of each age group were asked to nominate players for most improved player and coaches' player of the year, while the girls got the chance to vote on a players' player of the year.
“The awards night is a fantastic way to award the achievements of every team, while highlighting those girls who have really excelled.”
Helping to pass out awards was former Scottish football star and Moray man, Alan Main, who is exploring new territory in this latest venture as a goalkeeping coach.
Main said: “I had never coached women or girls until now, which is a bit different from coaching men and boys, but the basic skills and commitment required are basically the same.
“Moray Girls hasn’t had a dedicated goalkeeping coach in a while, and I'm delighted to be playing a part in the club’s growth and the girls’ development.
“I look forward to really making a difference next season and helping the young goalkeepers keep the ball out of the net.”
The girls also celebrated their end of the season success by going on a bus trip to the Scotland v England women's international match at Hampden Stadium.
Over the past few years, Moray Girls FC has grown extensively in size, in part due to the rise in popularity in women's football.
A pathway has now been created between Moray Girls and Elgin City's women's team, which was formed this year. It creates an opportunity for talented girls to graduate to senior level and play at Scottish Women's Football League level.
Duncan added: “There are different ways to measure success, and one of them is to look at the positive destinations of the girls who leave the club.
“At the end of this 2023 season, nine of our U16 players graduated out of Moray Girls.
“Depending on how things pan out, most of them will have the opportunity to sign with Elgin City women, and a couple are looking to either extend their playing time with us or join our coaching team.
“We are extremely proud of every one of our graduating girls, and if we're measuring success by looking at their achievements, then we’ve just had our most successful year ever.”
Moray Girls award winners.
Most Improved Player:
Under 10s - Charlotte Moore and Lauren Burton
Under-12s - Lottie Fraser
Under-14s - Abbie Burton
Under-16s - Hayden Truman.
Coaches Player of the Year
Under-12s - Paisleigh McLeman
Under-14s - Zara Ramage
Under-16s - Darcy Matheson
Players' Player of the Year
Under-12s - Lily Duncan
Under-14s - Zara Ramage
Under-16s - Gracie-Mae Hubbard.
