Women’s Under-21s suffer Cup defeat to Chelsea | OneFootball

Our Women’s Under-21s were knocked out of the Professional Game Academy (PGA) League Cup on Wednesday afternoon after a heavy defeat to Chelsea.

A dominant first half showing from the Blues, who finished second in the first phase of the PGA League, saw them with a 3-0 scoreline at the break before adding a further two goals in the second half to wrap up a comprehensive victory in cold conditions.

The defeat will now see Nick Hardy’s side enter the PGA League Plate – a competition between sides that were knocked out of the first round of the Cup - while Chelsea will progress to the second round.

Chelsea made an emphatic start at Hotspur Way as a brace from Lois Shooter and a composed finish from Tia-Mai Young at the near post saw them take a three-goal advantage inside the opening 10 minutes. Although we grew into the game as the first half went on, it was the visitors who continued to carve out opportunities, but Shooter was unable to convert on three occasions to wrap up her hat-trick before the first 45 minutes came to an end.

The visitors added a fourth just four minutes after the break as Alejandra Bernabe, who has made her senior international debut for Spain, raced through on-goal before calmly slotting the ball past Erin Radbourne. Substitute Jhananie Pierre had a golden opportunity to pull a goal back as the England youth international latched on to Persis Oteng’s pass behind Chelsea’s backline, but her left-footed effort was straight into the hands of Isla Ball.

Emily McMaster cleared Scarlett Kagalwala’s shot off the line, while Chloe Sawrie fired an effort into the side-netting before they eventually grabbed the fifth goal of the afternoon, Sude Ostas winning the ball ahead of Radbourne and, from the left area of the box, lofted the ball over our retreating goalkeeper and into the far corner to wrap up a strong victory for Chelsea and sees us drop into the Plate competition.

"It’s a real feeling of disappointment in the manner of how we competed"

Reflecting on the game, Nick Hardy said: “We have to be honest with ourselves, the overriding feeling is disappointment because of the performance. We spoke at half-time and after the game, the scoreline is one thing and where we are in our project, the improvement and development we have seen in the girls individually and as a group, we know there will be games where we are inferior in terms of our development. But it’s a real feeling of disappointment in the manner of how we competed, it was below the standards that we hope and expect.

“Our parting message in the dressing room was to put the result behind us and refocus on the league. We get a chance to focus on the longevity that’s in front of us this season, the second phase of the competition gives us an opportunity to make amends and build momentum ahead of the Christmas break and try to finish the calendar year as strong as possible.”