Academy to contest WSL Academy League Plate Final this Sunday

This weekend, our Academy side will battle it out for the FA Women’s Super League Academy League Plate.

The third of our youth teams across our Men’s and Women’s sides to reach a final this season, we will take on Liverpool Under-21s in the showpiece at the Holywell Sports Complex, Loughborough, on Sunday (kick-off 11am UK).

Looking ahead to the game, Talent Pathway Manager Chris Gould said: “It’s a really good opportunity. The success of the Academy will never be down to winning or losing the cup on Sunday, but it’s a unique opportunity to give all the players in the squad an experience, ahead of graduation to senior football, of a competitive match in front of a decent-sized crowd.

“It’s a very important part of our games programme and the girls should be really proud to get to this point. They’re excited and really deserve this. Hopefully we’ll get a good result.

“It’s a fantastic learning experience for the staff and players, to play at a neutral venue. The game prep has been slightly different this week but we’ve tried to keep as much of it the same as possible. Whatever the result on Sunday, each player will learn from it.”

To reach this year’s final, we triumphed 2-0 away at Everton in the last eight before claiming a 3-1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion in the semi-finals thanks to a Lenna Gunning-Williams hat-trick.

Liverpool won 2-1 against last-season’s winners, Leicester City, in the quarter-finals before claiming another 2-1 win to edge Manchester City in the last four.

This season, we have also enjoyed an impressive league campaign in the Southern Division. We currently sit third in the league, level on points with Chelsea in second after 10 wins, seven draws and four defeats, with only goal difference separating the sides.

“We didn’t go into the season looking for a particular target of points,” Chris continued, “however, we’ve had 13 to 14 players train with the first team this season which, for us, three years into our evolution, is a really big landmark for us to be extremely proud of.

"There are players within that who have gone on to make competitive debuts and Lenna scored for the first-team, so they’re all KPIs for the Academy.

"The league overall has been the most competitive I’ve seen it across the whole country. The squad have become really difficult to beat, losing only two games since November. We play twice a week quite often so, to get to that point at this stage of the season, it is credit to the staff and the girls.”