With the huge amount of progress seen within Girls football in recent times across both grassroots and the professional women’s game in the UK, Accrington Stanley were proudly represented last Thursday in the Football League’s Regional Girls Cup Finals 2013/14.

Held every year, the Girls Cup is an under 13’s football league competition held by each of the Football League’s Community Trust departments in order to find a local school to represent each club at the Regional Finals. With Stanley’s local competition being held back in November, Accrington Academy proved to come out on top within the Hyndburn, Ribble Valley & Rossendale area.

The competition was split into group stage format, with the top two teams from each group going through to the semi-finals. A tough introduction to the group began with a 5-0 loss to Blackburn Rovers, providing a vital learning curve for the girls, with a subsequent 4-4 draw with Preston, 6-3 win against Wigan and a 4-2 final group game win against Fleetwood putting Accrington into the semi-finals stage.

With a place in the finals up for grabs, Stanley faced a strong Bolton Wanderers and despite a fantastic start, ended up succumbing to a 4-1 defeat to the eventual champions.