Dursley Town Girls Football Club is a flourishing concern.

Formed in 2000, the club now boasts more than 100 players across five age groups ranging from five-year-olds all the way up to under-16s.

That’s pretty impressive going and their success mirrors the growth of women’s football across the country and beyond over the past couple of decades.

“It’s just exploded,” said club secretary Paul Hieron, who also coaches the girls’ under-8 and under-14 teams.

“When the club started we had just two teams, now we have a player pathway which we’re very pleased with because the girls can go on and play for Dursley Town Ladies.”

The girls and the ladies are run separately in terms of finance but clearly there are close ties between the two.

And there are other routes which the more talented players can follow.

“Quite a lot go on and play for Gloucestershire,” said Hieron, who got involved with the club some 12 years ago.

“We’ve had players go to the academy at Bristol City and to Forest Green.”

Girls having those sort of opportunities would have been unheard of just a few, short years ago and Hieron, a dad of three girls, is delighted.

“The success of the Lionesses has played a big part in women’s football going from strength to strength,” he said.

“They are role models for the youngsters of today.

“The local FAs have also worked very hard to push girls into getting into football. I think it’s great, why shouldn’t girls have the same opportunities as the boys?

“When I was young girls didn’t play football, but now you get girls playing in mixed teams and playing with their brothers, it’s not a sport for one sex.

“Girls have the mentality that they can achieve anything they want to.”

And there’s certainly never been a better time for girls to play football.

“They had 77,000 to see the Lionesses play at Wembley recently, that’s a record,” said Hieron.

“My oldest daughter started playing when she was seven which was how I first got involved with Dursley.

“The two younger ones wanted to play like their big sister. They were about four at the time so we started a team for anyone under the age of eight.

“When we started just three or four turned up but now we get about 20 every Friday evening.”

And let’s be honest, people shouldn’t be surprised because the beautiful game is just that, a beautiful game.

“Yes, it is,” added Hieron. “It’s not just the football, it’s the social side. A lot of girls join because their friends have joined.

“We’re more about development and having fun than win at all costs.

“But having said that there is a pathway for the more talented players which is brilliant.”

Hieron is also proud of the fact that the club is an FA charter standard club.

“All our coaches are FA qualified and some are FA licensed,” he said. “We all hold an FA first aid qualification which means that anyone who joins our club is in good hands.”