AS the World Cup continues to draw record viewing figures and the professional game in England shows signs of sustainable growth, women’s football has never looked healthier.

Girl Power might have been left behind in the nineties but Toni Duggan, Karen Carney, Fran Kirby and Co are putting their own spin on the concept in Canada, giving an unprecedented profile to the Lionesses via terrestrial television coverage, with the aim of inspiring a generation of youngsters to head out for a kick-about.

Locally, there are positive signs too. After school classes run by the Bolton Wanderers Community Trust are over-subscribed, while more and more junior clubs extend their reach by offering football for both sexes.

All good, you might think, yet results from a survey conducted by the Football Association released this week revealed that nationally, just one in five dads want their daughters to play football.

Traditionally more female-oriented sports like swimming, athletics and gymnastics are apparently still the more favoured routes for parents to push their children, even if the empirical evidence suggests otherwise.

Wanderers’ Women and girls’ football development officer Emily Ashworth would also beg to differ.

The 22-year-old – who has played for Wanderers, Blackburn and Manchester City – has worked with the club for two-and-a-half years, spreading the word in the town.

Ashworth was six years old when she started playing for her father’s team, Dunscar Dynamos, and has never lost the football bug.

“I do a lot of after school classes around Bolton, and the numbers we are getting are fantastic,” she said. “That statistic really surprises me because we attract a lot of interest to the sessions we put on, I think a lot more young girls are looking at football and wanting to get involved, and that comes from the parents too.

“You’ve got something like 2.3million people watching the World Cup this year – that’s double what it was last time. And those players are becoming role models for younger girls coming through. They are starting to become household names, which is huge.”

Wanderers boast a growing network of girls and ladies’ teams, of which the senior team currently plays in the North West Women’s Regional League.

Although affiliated to the Community Trust rather than the men’s team, Wanderers Ladies benefit from the facilities at the Lostock Academy and do maintain links with the main club through kit and sponsorship.

In the future, it is hoped that the club can set-up enough junior teams to fulfil all the criteria necessary to join the Super League, where the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal are taking the game to new heights.

For now, Wanderers are looking to swell their numbers at senior level this week, holding open trials at Bolton Arena for players over 16.

“There is a gap between players who are 16 and some who have been there for a while,” Ashworth explained, “so we’re trying to promote the senior section to perhaps create a reserve team and be able to draw from a bigger pool of players and some fresher legs coming through.

“We’ll be doing trials from Sunday and at various stages next week, so hopefully we can get a few girls who fancy giving it a go to come down and stay with us.”

More trials will soon be announced at junior level, although interest is so high that the club can already field two teams of under-10s – flying somewhat in the face of the national trend.

The lure of playing at the academy and wearing Wanderers colours is a significant one, says Ashworth, who is keen to see “one big club” created in the future by attracting players at all age levels.

“When you send some of the senior ladies down to the junior games wearing the tracksuits with the club colours, it’s such a big thing,” she said. “That’s something to aspire to.

“Eventually the aim of all the sessions we’ve been doing in schools, colleges and universities is to make sure we’ve got teams at every level, we can cater for all ages.

“At the moment we have under-10s, under-11s and an under-15s who will all be moving up. We have a development centre to make sure that the girls who don’t quite fit at the right age groups still get coached every Friday – so, for example, five to eight years olds train together. The one I’m really hoping to boost is under-9s.

“But for people to say young girls are struggling to get into football surprises me. They certainly aren’t in Bolton.”