Women’s Under-21s narrowly beaten in seven-goal thriller

Our Women’s Under-21s suffered a narrow defeat in an action-packed clash with Leicester City on Wednesday afternoon, with the Foxes seeing off a second half comeback to secure a 4-3 victory.

There were only 20 minutes on the clock in our first game of the new year, but the dismissal off goalkeeper Sophie Jackson and two goals from the hosts gave us a mountain to climb early on. Persis Oteng managed to halve the deficit, but the hosts reinstated their two-goal lead on the stroke of half time.

Although the home side added a fourth minutes at the restart, two goals in eight minutes from Jhanaie Pierre and Kendra Brown gave us a lifeline in the Professional Game Academy League encounter but, despite a spirited performance until the very end and a number of opportunities, we couldn’t find an equaliser as the Foxes claimed all three points.

Despite the disappointment of not picking up any points, Women’s Academy Technical Manager Nick Hardy was full of praise for his side’s fight and desire in challenging sitatuons.

“If you consider all the things that happened, it’s crazy to think we are slightly disappointed not to come away with more, even with 10 players for over 70 minutes of the game. It’s not a disappointment that’s negative, it’s a disappointment that comes with plenty of positives because of the reaction and performance.

“We talk about the development and learning for these players, and they experienced exactly that in this game, it’s very unlikely a team will experience something like this for 70+ minutes, having lost our only recognised goalkeeper and an outfield player having to step in, we can all take a lot from it.

“We spoke on the pitch after the game and there should be nothing but a sense of pride, positivity for the players, to stay in the game, fight back and have chances to potentially win the game near the end.”