May 9th 2025. u11 Girls win the Summer Cup Final.

The girls began the evening with a rather disappointing 1-0 defeat to Walsall and never really recovered once Walsall had snatched an early lead from a rather speculative long range effort which surprised Poppy in the Wolverhampton goal but they quickly steadied the ship and thoroughy deserved their comprehensive 3-0 victory over Cannock in their next match. After good play on the left by Clara and Layla had created the space for Rosie to net the opener Layla scored twice to virtually clinch the points and spirits were certainly high when we faced East Birmingham in our third contest of the night. On current form we were strong favourites but games aren't won on paper and despite having plenty of possession, and several clear cut scoring opportunites, we simply couldn’t get the goal we wanted and our opponents broke away to score the only goal of the game in the last minute.

At this point our chances of qualifying for the final as group winners looked rather bleak to say the least but once Alarna had given us a 1-0 lead against Aston with a fantastic individual goal, from a move which began deep in our own half, it was clear that our girls had certainly not given up the ghost. Megan doubled our advantage, as she was the first to react once Rosie's corner had come came back off the post, and with other results going our way there was still a route to the final if we could overcome Erdington in the last group fixture of the evening. The

girls grabbed an early lead when a corner powered in by Layla, found the back of the net off a defender but Erdington went down the other end to equalise.A draw would not have benefitted either side but with time running out that appeared to be the likely outcome when Layla received the ball out on the right wing and shot from long range probably more in hope than expectation. Amazingly the ball squirmed underneath the keeper at the near post to give us that precious 2-1 win and we had somehow qualified for the final against all the odds.

Walsall had beaten us in the goup fixtures of course but everything seemed to be going our way and in another very tight game, with chances at both ends, we looked remarkably composed despite it being a final. Both keepers had also played well so it was always likely that one goal would be enough and fortunately it came the way of Wolverhampton. Megan took a quick throw on the right and as the ball came back to her she drove into midfield before unleashing a shot which took a massive deflection before finding the back of the net. The stranded keeper could only watch in anguish as the ball, which ultimately gave us the Trophy, slowly crossed the line for the one and only time in the match. Football is certainly a game of fine margins, but the Wolverhampton girls have certainly had a great season, and they fully deserve to end it in such a positive fashion.

Squad:Poppy Gretton, Haro Young, Megan Winwood, Clara Case, Alarna Samuels, Layla Dolman,

Amber Bains, Rosie Smith.