Healy ‘proud’ of U21s side

The young Reds produced a battling performance to lift the trophy, following a 4-1 victory over Birmingham City in the final at St George’s Park. 

Healy expressed her pride in the players’ commitment to the task at hand on the night and praised the way that they collectively navigated the triumph. 

“I’m really proud,” she told MUTV’s Ben Ibson post-match. 

“I don’t think it was our best performance if I’m totally honest, but it was a difficult game and we said to the girls before that these games are about experience, playing under pressure, playing under the crowd and under the lights, and sometimes you just have to find a way to win, and I thought they did that.

“They stuck to what we asked them to do, we changed bits and I thought when we played how we can play and we connected well, we played some good stuff and scored some really good goals. 

“I just said to them in there, ultimately in the 90 minutes it’s about taking your chances and finding a way to win, and they’ve done that, so I’m really proud of them.”

The Under-21s’ head coach expressed the invaluable nature of the experience to club media before the game and reinforced the message at the end of the night. She explains that her Academy players will benefit a large amount from the evening as a whole, going forward. 

“We want these games to be competitive and you need different challenges in academy football,” Healy said. 

“You don’t want every team to play short or press high all the time, you want these girls to have different experiences and that at times was a very tough game. 

“Birmingham play very direct, we don’t play against that a huge amount of times, so it’s a great experience for the girls to find a way to deal with that, especially in a cup final and you know the emotions that come with that.”

The team’s attentions will now return to our WSL Academy League Northern Division campaign, in which we will be looking to add more silverware over the coming months, as the table’s current leaders. 

Healy shared her appreciation for the Reds’ work across the season so far and says stages like league run-ins and cup finals are the ideal situations to aid our young players’ development. 

“They’ve done really well, we’ve put in some really good performances this season and the biggest thing for me is the level of improvement from not just the start of this season.

“I said in the pre-match interview that we’ve had two real difficult seasons with Covid, but the girls have worked so hard, their improvement throughout their time in the Academy has been excellent. 

“These are the experiences we want for the girls, to play in cup finals and fight for a league, [in a] run-in. In terms of experience, it’s been an excellent experience for the girls.”