Jill Scott thrilled to see growth of girls and women playing football in North East

Manchester City and England midfielder Jill Scott says the passion for football in the North East is a driving force behind the emergence of so many talented female players from the region.

A number of current internationals - including Scott, skipper Steph Houghton, Lucy Bronze, Jordan Nobbs and Carly Telford - hail from the North East and have all played at Sunderland at some point in their career.

"I think there must be something in the water," Scott told Sky Sports.

"Growing up I was always around football. I had a season ticket at Sunderland from the age of seven and I think there is just a real passion and a real love for the game up here.

"If you look at all the players that have come through from the North East they are all hard-working and gritty. I don't know if that's because we played most weekends in the rain and the wind and that made us a lot stronger.

"But a lot of us played under Mick Mulhern at Sunderland and he was someone who would always give young players an opportunity.

"I remember playing with the first team around the age of 14 and some of my team-mates were around 29 or 30.

"It was tough being so young but giving us that opportunity at that age strengthened us. He did that with a lot of young players and you can see them reaping the benefits of that as players now. It's fantastic to see so many girls from the North East coming through."

Scott was speaking at a coaching session for 35 girls run by Evolution Soccer in Durham, where she joined Newcastle United Women's defender Emily Ellis.

"This was a fantastic opportunity to come along and team up with Evolution Soccer who run a lot of coaching academies for boys and now they have one for girls," Scott said.

"I've been doing soccer schools for the last two years or so now and I absolutely love doing stuff like this. It's great to see how many girls are now getting involved.

"It was difficult for myself growing up because there were a lot of boys playing and you did get bullied sometimes because you were the only girl playing.

"But now seeing the girls and talking to their parents, they say their confidence has really gone up because they are around girls and not around boys all the time."