A PROGRAMME to get more girls involved with football received extra funding yesterday after exceeding its target for the year.

42,462 new girls have been attracted to the sport since the FA Women’s and Girls’ Programme was set up in 2013 thanks to help from the Football Association, Sport England, the Premier League and Football League Trust.

Its initial target was to have 40,000 girls playing football by August 2015 and after hitting that goal, the plan now is to have a further 21,000 participants over the next 12 months with an extra £3.7 million