
Women’s Under-16s reach PGA Champions Trophy Final
Tue 18 March 2025, 09:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
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.
It just shows how far they've all developed, which is what you want to see in an Under-16 season.
“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.