Women's U21s ready for cup final defence

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Head coach proud of the Albion squad to reach final for second year in a row against Crawley Wasps on Thursday night.

Heather Miller

2023-03-09T10:30:00Z

Albion WU21 squad head to cup final

Our Women's Under-21s will head to Culver Road in Lancing tonight to compete once again in the Sussex Challenge Cup Final.

The youngsters face Crawley Wasps for the second year running and have high hopes of retaining the trophy, according to head coach Sinead Hogan-Belcher.

"We're immensely proud of the girls for competing and staying in the tournament," she said. "It's always tough in a cup competition because you never know what you're going to get and what the environment is going to be like.

"We've had a variety of different environments, types of crowds and surfaces which they've had to adapt to - they've done incredibly well to meet the challenges in front of them."

Hogan-Belcher emphasised that the team are hungry to deliver a repeat of their achievement last season.

"The trophy sits in the middle of the changing room so it's visible to the girls when they walk in," she added. "There's a real emphasis from the older players down to the youngsters that we need to hold onto this trophy. The young players must feel that pressure, but I think that it's a great pressure to have.

Albion celebrate one of their goals in the 2022 final against Crawley Wasps.

"The last time we played in the cup final it was really nice to see some of the younger girls in the crowd from the academy system and hopefully they strive to play in this tournament when they progress. It's a great tradition to continue."

The head coach reflected on the team's journey to the final and in particular the resilience they showed in the 1-0 win against Hastings United in the first round. They subsequently beat Selsey 2-0 and Montpelier Villa 11-2 to reach the final.

"It was such a challenging game to stay in, we had lots of moments where it was touch and go where the girls had to put their body on the line and work together. I think that was really the turning point where we knew what we can achieve."

Hogen-Belcher expects another tough 90 minutes tonight. She added, "I'm anticipating a very loud environment. Crawley are an established team within tier three, they're physical and gritty. They're the underdog and they never make it easy."

Kick off tonight is 7.30pm.