Women's Under-19s defeated in PGA Division One opener
Our Women’s Under-19s began the second phase of the Professional Game Academy (PGA) League Division One with a 5-1 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.
Competing in Division One for the first time in our Academy’s history after finishing in the top five of the Southern Division in the first phase of the competition, Head Coach Matt Sharman named a young squad that travelled to Cobham with a number of Under-16s stepping up to take on a vastly experienced Chelsea side, which featured a number of individuals that have competed in the Women’s Super League and on the international stage.
We made the perfect start to the contest in west London when Nife Aramide captalised on the home side’s failure to clear a looping ball into the box and she picked out the bottom corner with a low left-footed strike after just 18 seconds on the clock.
Despite the strong start from our youngsters, Chelsea’s experience began to shine through and took a foothold in the scoreline, 3-1 up at the break, and added a further two goals in the second period to condemn our Under-19s to defeat in the opening game of the first phase.
“I can't fault the girls with the start that we had,” coach Matt told us after the game. “We've talked a lot around having fast starts as that something that we've probably not been good enough on, so they came out right away and got our awards by getting an early goal, which was good to see.
“We started the game well and we were in a really strong place but just weren't clean enough in possession and we ended up gifting them three goals in the first half, which ultimately made life much more difficult. So, we went into the second half with obviously with the goal of winning second half, and I think we had to make a few changes, but we just had to just minimise our individual mistakes that ultimately led to the goals that we conceded.
“These are the sort of opponents that we've got to try and really get on top of and go toe to toe with, so it's a great learning experience. Chelsea had some really well-established players in their squad that have been with their first team, but ultimately, we, as players, can't let that impact us or anything like that. We've got to thrive off that and want to go toe-to-toe because ultimately our goals have the same aspirations to be in a first team environment one day.”
Spurs: Jackson, Deria (Johnson 46), Elmes (Prosser 18 (Bird 77)), Bush, McClean, Mace, Aramide, Oukriss, Summers-Mee, Pierre, Bellwood (Withey 59). Substitutes (not used): Mylam.