Charlton players Lois Roche, Hannah Godfrey and Todd Kane visit 60 girls in U11 tournament

On Thursday 2 February, Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) welcomed more than 60 girls from 28 local schools to the Charlton Athletic Training Ground for a Premier League Primary Stars tournament.

Charlton Athletic players Hannah Godfrey, Lois Roche and Todd Kane came down to the tournament to meet the participants and help inspire the next generation of footballers.

The young participants, many of which were Charlton fans themselves, asked the players a wide range of questions and picked up lots of top tips after hearing about each of the players’ journey to becoming a professional footballer.

Reflecting on the visit, Lois said: “It was so good to see so many girls playing and enjoying their football.

It was great to be involved as we want to keep pushing the women’s game and getting more and more girls playing. Thanks for having us!”

St Thomas a Becket School, based in Abbey Wood, came out on top after getting through dramatic penalty shootouts in the quarter and semifinals, and sealing the deal with an impressive 2-0 victory in the final.

The St Thomas a Becket team will go on to represent CACT at the next round, the Primary Stars U11 Girls

Regional Finals, which will see 14 teams, including the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, and West Ham, welcomed to the Training Ground on 1 March.

To find out more about CACT’s School Sports offer, please visit: cact.org.uk/ cact/what-we-do/football-and-sports- development/school-sport-offer

CACT’s holiday football courses are back for the February half-term. If you are interested in advancing your child’s football skills, find a course near you and sign them up now by visiting: cact.gives/courses