DOZENS of girls took to the field as a new initiative to get young women playing football had one of it most successful events yet.

Girls on the Ball launched at the end of last year with two mini tournaments in Oxford in a bid to reach out to primary school aged girls.

Since the new year it has taken off and on Tuesday 100 girls pulled on their boots for a tournament at Oxford High School in Belbroughton Road.

The initiative is run by one of the school's PE teachers, Liam Gilbert, with support from Matt Payne from recruitment service Reed.

Mr Gilbert said: "Tuesday's event went really well, a lot of the girls there were playing for the first time.

"We had Girls on the Ball t-shirts for everyone and we got them playing non-competitive games.

"That meant there was no pressure from parents on the sidelines and it was a way of making it more fun.

"At the end of the day there were lots of smiling faces.

"Lots of the girls had a good day and their teachers made lovely comments about how good the day was."

Girls on the Ball aims to increase the opportunities for girls to play football, which can still be hard to come by despite the growing profile of the women's game.

Reed recruitment has helped by getting the word out to schools using its network of contacts from recruiting teachers.

Tuesday's event will be followed by a tournament for Year 8 pupils on March 10 at Oxford High School and a tournament for Year 5 and 6 pupils at the same venue on March 17.

Mr Gilbert said: "We have 17 schools coming along to the Year 5 and 6 event, we are really overwhelmed with the level of interest.

"When we started this we would have been happy with eight schools coming.

"For the next stage we would like to see if we could get up to 20 schools and make these events once a month."

The initiative has also brought benefits for pupils at Oxford High School.

Some girls were sent on the Football Association's young leaders scheme and were able to help run the events.

Mr Gilbert said: "They did warm-ups for some teams, greeted all the schools that turned up and officiated the games.

"It was great for their leadership skills and self-confidence."