Women’s Under-16s reach PGA Champions Trophy Final

Our Women’s Under-16s have reached the Professional Game Academy Champions Trophy Final for the first time.

We booked our place in the final of competition after a 2-0 victory over Bristol City on Saturday.

A first-half goal from midfielder Lexi Withey put us into the lead at the break before Cairo Antoine-Eva doubled the advantage with a fantastic left-footed strike shortly after the restart.

Following the impressive performance in the last four, we’ll now face Blackburn Rovers for a chance to lift the trophy near the end of the campaign.

A number of our youngsters have stepped up to the Under-21s this term and even the first team – goalkeeper Sophie Jackson named in our matchday squad for the FA Cup trip to Everton in January – and Under-16s coach Sabiha Jamal couldn’t be prouder to see the development of her players to this point.

“This is such a great way to enforce how well they've been doing,” she explained, reflecting on a memorable weekend in Bristol. “We played Bristol City earlier on in the season and won, that was probably our best performance to date, so to come back and compete with a different squad, different individuals and pretty much a different starting XI, it just shows how far they've all developed, which is what you want to see in an Under-16 season.

“It was well deserved, we were the better team and one of the biggest things we had to do was battle physically, compete for every single ball and I think to be able to do that consistently throughout the game was just really nice to see.

“I've seen a lot of what the Under-21s go through and I've seen what the first team want in terms of really aggressive one-v-one players, high up the pitch, so to see them showing that now, I think puts us in a really good position in terms of where we want to get them to be.”

The showpiece event against Rovers, who beat Durham 2-1 in the other semi-final, will take place at a later date in the season, and Sabiha is excited to see her players relish the opportunity of competing in a final.

“It's really exciting and, for the girls themselves, having the opportunity to play in a stadium, having that professional feeling to a game, it's nice to give them those little snippets of what it could be like.

“I think them getting that experience, especially for the second years who a lot of them are being retained to go into the Under-21 environment, it’s a really nice way to sort of sign off for the Under-16s.”

Our Under-21s also have an opportunity to secure a trophy this term with Nick Hardy’s side currently in the semi-final of the Capital Cup where they will face Dulwich Hamlet next month – full details to be confirmed.

Starting XI: Jackson, Bird (Deria 70), Bush, Sharpe, Khanna, Aramide (Johnson 55), Elmes, Withey (Bellwood 55), Neill (Ordean 46), Summers-Mee, Antoine-Eva. Substitutes: Ordean, Shields.