This year’s EFL Girls Cup took place on Monday 14th November with 100 girls taking part in what was Blackpool FC Community Trust’s biggest Girls Cup to date. 13 teams entered the competition on the day with teams from the following schools attending; St Marys, Aspire, Montgomery, Highfield, South Shore, Millfield, Carr Hill, Baines, LSA and St Bede’s.
Each team played in several competitive fixtures throughout the group stages with lots of really close fought games. As the group stages came to an end, there were numerous teams from each group in with a chance of making the top two and progressing through to the semi-finals of the competition.
With five wins out of five, LSA progressed and topped group A, with St Mary’s edging out Aspire on goal difference to take the runners up spot. Group B was equally as close with three teams in with a shout of progressing to the semi-finals. Montgomery took first place in the group and the runners up spot went to Millfield’s A team despite South Shore pushing them all the way with some impressive performances and goals.
This meant that the semi finals were LSA v Millfield and Montgomery v St Marys. In the end it was both of the top teams from each group who won their respective semi-finals despite Millfield and St Marys putting in brave performances to stop two strong attacking teams.
The final was a repeat from the previous year with both teams progressing to the final two years in a row. LSA started the game strongly looking to continue their dominant performances that they had been putting in all day. After some nice passing moves and a couple of chances, they eventually broke the deadlock to take a 1-0 lead. As the game went on, Montgomery came more and more into the game and eventually scored an equaliser with just over one minute left on the clock. In a frantic last minute, LSA took a 2-1 lead with around 40 seconds left of the game and they finished the game off with the last kick of the game scoring from a quick corner by sneaking the ball past the keeper at the near post.
The score finished 3-1 to LSA which meant they won the tournament for the second year in a row and will go on to represent Blackpool FC Community Trust against other clubs from the northwest with the chance to progress further and hopefully reach the finals which will be held at Wembley stadium.
With lots of talent on show, we aim to continue supporting the growth of the girls’ game along the Fylde coast. We now offer different options for females of all ages and are currently delivering female only PL Kicks sessions, Wildcats sessions and will be launching our new Emerging Talent Centre early into 2023. The future is bright for girls football locally!
