Encourage a singular soccer side (4)
I believe the answer is:
spur
'encourage' is the definition.
(spur can mean to encourage)
'a singular soccer side' is the wordplay.
'a singular' becomes 's' (abbreviation in grammar).
'soccer side' becomes 'pur' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
's'+'pur'='SPUR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spur that I've seen before include "Goad - incentive" , "Inducement" , "Goad as for a horse" , "railway siding" , "outcrop" .)