Swinton Ladies FC

Swinton Ladies FC captain Lisa Hill has praised the “amazing” work done by her teammates on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the team’s season curtailed due to the outbreak, several members of the squad have been able to fully focus on their day-to-day jobs, including working on the frontline against the virus.

Hill says the work being done by her teammates, as well as all of the key workers, across the region is commendable.

She said: “We’ve got nurses, several doctors, teachers, care workers, police – we’ve pretty much got everyone on the frontline within our team.

“Our youngest player is in her first year at university and has been working in a care home whilst she’s not at uni. It’s amazing that these people are putting their lives on the line to help.

“Obviously it’s also tough because we’re not really hearing from them as much as we would, but when they have their days off they’ll join in a chat about what they’re watching on Netflix – just to get that bit of normality really.”

The squad may not be able to get together due to the outbreak, but they have found new ways of keeping in contact over the past few weeks.

Hill said: “Every Tuesday one of the girls organises a 20-minute HIIT session that we all get involved with on Zoom – she talks us through it and we all do it together.

“We’d usually train on a Tuesday so instead of training we’ve been doing that. She mixes it up every week; she did a killer leg session the other week – no one could walk after that for a few days!

“We’ve done pub quizzes and our manager has also done tactic nights on Zoom where we’ve watched footage from our last game and he’s talked us through it, so we’re doing that as well.

“We want to keep that group together for next season so it’s important to keep in contact with each other; we have a WhatsApp group that people are on every day checking in on each other as well.”

The team, who play their football in Division Two of the Greater Manchester Women’s Football League, had their season expunged following the FA’s update on tiers 3-7 of the women’s football season last month.

Despite the disappointment of seeing the season come to a premature close, the Swinton skipper insists the squad are working hard to be ready for when they can return to the pitch, once the current situation is resolved.

“We were all gutted just because we want to play, but also because we’d had a good cup run as well, we’d knocked two teams out from the league above so we felt like we were getting momentum there.

“But we just all want to be ready to get back on the pitch as soon as we can.”

To stay up to date with Swinton Ladies FC during lockdown, follow the team on Twitter; @SwintonLadiesFC.

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