Cambridge United Women Under-18s continued a debut season to remember by securing a second-placed finish in the Junior Premier League last weekend.
The team, which was launched last summer to create a more coherent pathway from the youth section to the senior side, thrashed visiting Nottingham Forest 5-0 at Cambourne Village College to ensure that they will finish runners-up.
And Sean Greygoose’s side also have the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup final to look forward to on 28 April when they will lock horns with Whittlesey Athletic at Julius Martin Lane, home of Soham Town Rangers.
After the demolition of Forest, Greygoose, who will take his side to face East Oxfordshire Elite in the final league game on 6 April, said: “I’m really pleased that the group have secured second place in the league and made it to a cup final.
“The bigger picture this season was to help aid the development and support these young players and results were a by product of of this.
“This season was a bit of an unknown in terms of what it was going to look like going up against established sides like Derby, Forest, and Watford. However, the girls have been brilliant. We will look to finish the season in Oxford with a positive performance and result and then start to work towards the cup final.”
After a relatively subdued opening 45 minutes against Forest, the game came alive after the break with a batch of goals in nine breathless second-half minutes.
Emilia Reinhardt struck a quickfire hat-trick, while further efforts from Jasmine Fox and top goalscorer Natasha Coe – taking her goal tally for the campaign to 24 – put the game way out of the visitors’ reach.
Greygoose added: “Previously the girls have struggled with first-half performances and showed a little bit of nerves. However, we changed the shape slightly and we were really pleased with how we started the game especially against the wind. We created a few chances and made the keeper work.
“We spoke about the second half looking more aggressive with and without the ball and being more on the front foot. The girls started the half really well and scoring four goals in the first 10 minutes showed how dominant we were. Emilia took her hat-trick really well and I was pleased with the different types of goals we scored.
“In the first half Lily in goal hasn’t had much to do which shows the effort of those in front of her. There are still a few areas we need to tidy up and will work on, however the main aim of this season was to create a group that are developing and learning but also coming up against different challenges which this season has given us.
“We are really pleased with the girls and how they are developing but we also know that there is still loads they can learn.
“All the praise has to go to this group and the willingness to listen, learn but also how they keep the standards really high. We look forward to finishing the season away at Oxford.”
