A JUNIOR football club is playing on a long-awaited new grass sports pitch after £37,000 of improvements were made.

Blackburn-based Newground Together has helped provide the funding for the multi-sport pitch at Feniscowles and Pleasington War Memorial Recreation Ground, helping trustees achieve their goal of increasing sporting opportunities for young people in the neighbourhood.

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The charity, part of Together Housing Group, added £15,000 to the £22,715 raised by Feniscowles & Pleasington Junior Football Club. The money was used to create the pitch and train young people as referees, sports leaders and instructors.

More than 300 young people and 240 adults take part in the 26 football, four tennis, four bowls and eight cricket teams that regularly train and compete at the recreation ground, located on the QE2 Heritage site off Livesey Branch Road.

Trustee and football coach Mike Caton said: “The new multi-sport pitch is fantastic — a great addition to the sports pitches we have already. It will allow us to increase the capacity of the sports we are able to offer.

“Football is very popular. As well as our boys’ teams we have six girls’ teams and we run Football For All sessions on Saturday mornings for children aged three to 12.

“Before, we had to turn people away. But now we have more capacity. We will also be able to expand our football and cricket teams.”

Club bosses said levels of antisocial behaviour have dropped significantly and childhood obesity has reduced since the organisation began engaging young people in sport 10 years ago.