You could feel the excitement on a chilly afternoon at Meadowbank Primary, a Manchester United Foundation partner school just a few miles away from Leigh, ahead of a very special visit.

The location of the school in proximity to the home of the Reds has seen a big surge of support from the pupils, meaning the arrival of Anna Sandberg, Rachel Williams and Safia Middleton-Patel was greeted with real excitement!

The trio had come down to learn more about the Foundation's work with local primary-school-aged children and, of course, to take part in some fun activities with the starstruck pupils.

"I think it's really important to show the community that we're here," Safia commented after the event. "We've all had fun joining in and obviously it's even more enjoyable when you beat Anna in a game of dodgeball!"

Anna took exception to this, but clearly enjoyed the event just as much as her Reds team-mate. "Absolutely no way, I won!" the Swedish defender fired back.

"I love supporting the Foundation and the work they do and it's always enjoyable to meet the kids. I can only imagine how I would have felt when I was younger if this happened in my school."

Safia, Anna and Rachel take questions from the pupils, who loved every minute of having the Reds join them for some fun and games.

The visit began with a quick tour from deputy head Gillian Davies, where the Reds learned more about the school's activities with the Foundation, before the highly competitive games of dodgeball and benchball began!

"One of the reasons we wanted to become part of the Foundation was for them to help us raise the popularity of girls football and just girls playing sport in general," Gillian told us.

"For the players to come here today has been absolutely amazing. We're so close to Leigh, so have a big support here for the women's team, and it's been amazing to see the kids' reaction, how much it means to them and how much it's clearly inspired them."

"It was amazing!" participant Summer enthused. "The [United] players were telling us how we had to beat the player on the other team - we all had so much fun."