Four young footballers from the youth team Bayside Girls have been selected to represent Scotland at an upcoming tournament in Sweden.

The Coerver cup is a 5-a-side tournament which will see a Scotland select squad compete with teams from around Scandanavia.

Amy Eggo, Johanna Macdonald, Miryn Wright, and Grace Rylance were all selected for the squad at an under-16 level. 

Bayside coach Paul Murray said: “It’s a massive thing for Bayside as a club to have girls represented at that level.

“If you look at it, most of the girls play for senior clubs. We’re not a Hearts or a Hibs, we’re a little team in Fife.

“I think it highlights what the club’s doing to present girls with the opportunity to play football. It comes down to coaching, and we’ve got a good coaching team putting the girls first.”

Girl’s football has exploded in popularity in recent years. Mr Murray said: “We’re sitting with over 200 girls playing football, and we get requests on a daily basis. We try to facilitate that with teams and coaches.

Amy Eggo also made the cut.Amy Eggo also made the cut. (Image: Bayside FC)

“We’ve got two teams at under 16, with around 40 girls. I reckon in the next five years we’ll have an equal number of girls and boys at Bayside.

“Girls have the opportunity to play girls football or mixed. At a younger age we tend to put a team of girls in with the boys at Pitreavie.

“When they get a bit older, we remove them from there and they go in the girls leagues. Girl’s football has come on so much that there’s enough demand there to do that.

“They're really enjoying it, and they have people to look up to now like Caroline Weir.”

The team has experienced a level of success on the pitch to rivals that of larger clubs, with the under 16s team winning the youth performance league for the whole of Scotland.

Mr Murray was even nominated for coach of the year. He said: “I’ve been involved for about five years. My girl started playing for Bayside and I got drawn into coaching.

“They already had a really good foundation there, having won things like the Scottish cup before.

“Bayside were kind of in there before a lot of the others, so it was the place to take a girl to progress at football.

“Our coaches are all volunteers, and we’re playing against teams who have paid staff such as Falkirk, Dunfermline, and Glasgow City.

“To finish a league seven points above Glasgow City is incredible.”