Women’s football: North Wales teenage stars deserve more recognition for their talents

Earlier this year the head of women’s football in Wales, Lowri Roberts, said none of the current crop of Adran Premier players have what it takes to break into the senior national squad in the short-term.

The statement also poured cold water on the hopes that players operating below Tier 1 in the domestic pyramid could, with significant progress, become part of something bigger in the Wales set-up.

However, Roberts did throw a line of encouragement to the very young players learning their trade in Tiers 1-3 at present.

In an interview in March, she said: “In the next few years, no-one in Wales will be able to offer the right kind of high performance environment that we need our senior international players competing and training at.

“However, it absolutely can be for those girls in the under-17s and under-19s.

“I know it’s going to be an unpopular statement to make.

“For us, the strategy has to be ensuring that this is a good development tool for our youth internationals, then when they’re hitting 18/19/20, that they’re able to play professionally.

“And right now that’s outside of Wales.”

Well the message for Ms Roberts and the Wales women’s teams manager Gemma Grainger is this – we have a lot of untapped young talent shining through in the north in the 16-19 age bracket who deserve looking at.

Yes, we have seen evidence of this with the Wales Under-17 side, currently performing so well in the European Championships with several FAW Girls Academy North players featuring in recent wins over Kazakhstan and Albania.

We also consistently do well in the FAW Under-16 Girls Welsh Cup, with the likes of Kinmel Bay this season, plus Henllan, Penrhyn Bay and Caernarfon doing marvellously in recent years.

But it shouldn’t just be about representative squads. Club football deserves more focus too and there are some outstanding young players making their mark in the Tiers 2 and 3 Genero Adran North and North Wales Leagues.

The most obvious right now is Phoebe Ellis, a 16-year-old forward with Tier 2 Adran North leaders Connah’s Quay Nomads.

This young star has hit 14 goals in 10 first team games this term already – a phenomenal record.

Sadly, we lost colossal teenage defender Sienna Strapp over the summer when she departed Nomads to sign for Stoke City.

She is doing well and has to do what’s best for her, but the hope is we can hold on to the likes of Phoebe for the foreseeable future.

CASE IN POINT: AIRBUS v CPDM BANGOR – November 26, 2023

Evidence of the quality of youngsters currently gracing the fields of North Wales was on show last Sunday when Airbus hosted CPDM Bangor in the Genero Adran North.

Bangor coach, the experienced Andrew ‘Lefty’ Wright, contacted us to comment on his delight at the young average age of both squads.

Eleven of the 16 players in the Airbus ranks were aged either 16 or 17.

They were: Ruby Stevens, India Howarth, Laura Pratt, Charlotte Dykes, Zara McDonald, Grace Kehoe, Farrah Aslam, Lucy Vickers, Erin Heath, Anna Owen and Ruby Ellis.

Nine of the 14 Bangor girls on duty were aged between 16 and 18.

They were: Erin Basinger, Erin Burns, Seren MacDonald, Menna Evans, Mia Roberts, Alys Davis, Cerys MacDonald, Elin Jones and Cadi Jones.

‘Lefty’ said: “Average age of the Airbus squad yesterday was 19.7, so (equivalent to) under-20s…

“Average age of the Bangor squad yesterday was 21.8, so (equivalent to) under-22s.

“Not a bad sign for North Wales Football.”

Bangor edged the close-fought game 1-0, but the class of football on show was the most uplifting aspect of the encounter.

‘Lefty’ added: “Two young sides still developing but both trying to play the game the right way was a pleasure to see.”