You're always best off meeting girls through mutual friends, but you can't expect it to just fall in your lap. Chatting girls up on the high street is vert rarely going to work, and I'd be willing to bet that no-one on here met their partner like that. (This is where I'm proved very wrong though!). Why not go out with the football lads that you play with? I go out with the people I play football with, and pretty soon you're chatting to their friends etc. Before you know it you know more people than you did the day before.
And lastly, being 23 and single is nothing to worry about. What will put off girls/mates fast is not looks, a gym toned body, cash, etc, but someone who is really negative all the time. So you HAVE to try to look more positively otherwise you'll never get anywhere.
Anyway, we all know that girls are no good anyway ;-)