A WOMEN’S football team in the German city of Halle are sponsored by a brothel and the players of Teutschenthal raise little more than an eyebrow when they play with “X- Carree: Always Worth A Visit” emblazoned across their chests.

Chester-le-Street Ladies, though, met an unblinking red light when they tried “No bollX” on their kit last season. The Durham FA banned it, which lost the club a small fortune. Conquering the disappointment is, it seems, a question of mind over matter, for John Grierson, a hypnotist from Northern Ireland, is the team’s new backer.

The offending logo was taken from Keith Brown’s book, True Masculinity, No bollX, and the author was offering the Northern Combination League club £15,000 to wear it. “We knew it would make waves,” Bill Godward, who founded the club with his wife, Pauline, in 1994, said. “But we didn’t expect that. It was a huge amount of money and we were going to turn semi-professional.”

“It was a unanimous decision by the Durham FA,” Pauline added, in a rich Geordie accent. “They said it was disgusting, that it wasn’t suitable for women’s sport. It’s an everyday word, man! You know, there isn’t a man under 50 years of age on that board and I get on my high horse every time I think about it. The big FA should have stepped in and done something about it.”

Yet the Godwards did not appeal. “It would have cost £300, which was more than the club had in the bank,” Pauline said. “We asked around and people told us we’d have no chance of winning. Basically, they had us over a barrel.”

The story ran in the Northern Echo, was broadcast on Radio Newcastle and gathered pace like a rolling stone. Tesco chipped in £500. Companies offered playing kit. “We’re passionate about football up here,” Pauline, 42, who is one of only a handful of women in England to hold a Uefa B coaching badge, said. “Everybody was talking about it.”

Bill kept the tongues wagging by announcing that he was opening a shop in Newcastle to sell off his collection of celebrity memorabilia to raise more funds for the club. “I’ve been a collector for four decades,” the 67-year-old said. “It’s a love of my life, along with my wife and football. There’s a signed Elvis record, photos of Sinatra, shirts signed by Alan Shearer and David Beckham. I chase celebrities for anything that ’ll sell.”

So Pauline had to interrupt one recent training session at their Chester Moor ground, which the local men’s team allow them to use free of charge, to take a call from Lesley Joseph, star of Birds of a Feather, the BBC sitcom. “The girls couldn’t get over that,” Pauline said. “Me standing in the pouring rain shouting ‘Lesley who?’ Well, I only know her as Dorien.”

Like that fictional character, Pauline has no trouble with voice projection. “Yes, I’m the one ranting and screaming on the touchline,” she said. “When it comes to the dressing-room, yes, I will throw the cups and kick football boots. I hate losing and I hate seeing talent wasted.”

Grierson, who watched the team he pays £100 a month to sponsor for the first time this month, is expected to be a quieter influence. “He came to our first-round FA Cup tie,” Pauline said. “But because I’d done the team talk and hyped everybody up, he didn’t want to interrupt. He just wished the girls good luck. We won 3-1, but it was abysmal. I hid in the dugout I was that embarrassed. We had about 200 spectators and I was glad we hadn’t charged them. They’d have been asking for their money back, with interest. The sooner we start his sessions on mental strength, the better.”

“He’s not going to hypnotise the girls,” Bill added, “but he’s going to talk about the will to win.” Which is something that Ashley Scott, the team’s star, has bags of. The teenager is appearing in the BBC’s Born To Win competition. “They filmed it last August,” Pauline said, “but Ashley’s not letting anything out of the bag. She’s told us the result is a secret.” Bill’s loyalty is unswerving. “She could win,” he said. “The club takes fitness very seriously. We win a lot of games in the last third because we’re stronger.”

It could be that Chester-le-Street Ladies FC have the legs, or perhaps it is the shirts declaring “New Life Hypnosis” that weakens the opposition. Either way, they are sitting pretty, unbeaten at the top of their league. “But I’d still like us to go semi-pro,” Pauline said, wistfully, “because we’ve got the bollocks to take it on.”

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