Under-19s face Chelsea in the PGA League

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Olivia Jackson

2025-12-16T13:10+00:00

The WU19s face Chelsea in their final game of the year on Wednesday. 📸 Paul Hazlewood.

Our WU19s play their final game of the year on Wednesday, when they take on Chelsea at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre in the PGA League.

Albion narrowly lost 3-2 to Chelsea in September but only finished one place below them in the south table.

Now the two teams face each other again in the newly formed division one, a combination of the best teams from the southern and northern PGA Leagues.

Head coach Dani Bowman said, “The loss to Manchester United last Wednesday was very uncharacteristic of us as a team so we want to bounce back. We know that every game in division one is a challenge and Chelsea is another opportunity for us to perform better.

“The level of opponent in this league is higher. A lot of the squads have experience with their first teams. The northern teams are also physically stronger, very resilient and will fight. We really have to make sure that without the ball we are just as good.

“We have players returning which is obviously a positive and they bring more quality to the group and a higher standard. There are still injuries but the squad is looking much stronger.

“The team know the task. We played them early in the season and have improved since that game. We are looking forward to playing them at home.

“As always with this group, it is about the team giving 110% because they are still young players and will make mistakes which is okay. As long as they learn that is the most important thing.”

Elliana Martin, May Balmer and Emilie Gay all featured in Dario Vidosic’s squad on Sunday for Albion against Chelsea in the WSL.

“For us as an academy, it is an amazing achievement, and we are really glad that Dario trusts our girls on the pitch," added Vidosic. "The experience of being around that environment would have inspired them. They all want to be in that team and get on the pitch.”