GAME girls who have been inspired by the World Cup are being invited to join a football team in Backwell which is being set up especially for them. Keith Hickling, an FA Level 1 coach, worked with a Backwell United Football Club's squad for three years fr

GAME girls who have been inspired by the World Cup are being invited to join a football team in Backwell which is being set up especially for them.Keith Hickling, an FA Level 1 coach, worked with a Backwell United Football Club's squad for three years from under-7 and has recently been putting them through their paces as under-9s.Last season, they did him proud by finishing joint winners of the Somerset Football Association's mini soccer festival and excelling in other competitions too.Only four of the 23 young footballers Keith coaches, including his daughter, Lucy, aged nine, are female, but he has plans to change that.This coming season, the club is inviting girls aged between eight and 11 to bend it like Beckham and Keith is aiming to enter a team in the Bristol Girls' League.Keith, a human resources manager, said: "I've always thought there would be more girls playing football if there was a team set up especially for them, so we're setting up Backwell United's first ever girls' squad."Football's a great game and is increasingly popular with girls."Setting up the girls' squad will give them the same opportunity to play the sport in Backwell that boys have had for more than 30 years."It will give girls the chance to have some fun playing the game, as well as the possibility of playing competitively."Football-mad girls, in school years 3-6 at the moment, are invited to Backwell United Football Club on July 2 between 11.30am and 1pm. After signing up for the squad and paying an annual subscription of £57.50, the girls will start training, and playing matches, on Sunday mornings from the end of the summer.For more information, contact Keith Hickling on 01275 464067.