Aston Villa Academy: Women’s Under-21s continue to shine after convincing win over league-leaders Birmingham City
Aston Villa Women’s Under-21 side came out as triumphant 4-2 winners against table-topping Birmingham City to move within three points of their close rivals in the Northern Divison.
The young Villans survived a late onslaught to hold on for the huge victory away from home at The Hayes playing fields and climbed above Liverpool into second in the table.
Having won four, drawn two, and lost four of their league games this season, the future of the Women’s academy is growing ever brighter, with a realistic title now on the cards for the west midlands side.
This comes on the same night that academy graduate Alice Keitley made her first appearance in the first-team squad during the 2-1 Conti Cup win over Sheffield United.
The youngster was one of six other academy products to feature in the first-team fixture – highlighting the giant strides Villa have made in successfully promoting the youth through their ranks.
But this success wasn’t made overnight and was part of a long-term strategy introduced in 2020.
When Aston Villa Women got promoted to the WSL, one of the many tasks for the club’s hierarchy was to restart the women’s academy and have it as a significant stepping stone on the way to the first team.
During the first lockdown, the task fell to Youth Techincal Director Cristina Torkildsen to re-establish the academy, effectively starting from square one and having to hire staff and recruit young stars from noisy neighbours, Birmingham City.
And Torkildsen is now reaping the rewards of her hard work, with the likes of Olivia McLoughlin – who was awarded her first professional contract in January 2021 – and attacking midfielder Laura Blindkilde Brown shining for Carla Ward this season.
McLoughlin, in particular, has proven herself a revelation for the first team in recent times.
The highly-touted 17-year-old can play a variety of positions across the back line as well as defensive midfield, and this flexibility played a huge role in Villa’s fight against the drop last season.
With several other stars of the future, such as Isobel Goodwin, Freya Gregory and Keitley all starting to get their chances under Ward, the future of Aston Villa women’s academy seems to get brighter by the week.
In other Aston Villa news, Rachel Daly could score even more goals for Carla Ward if Villa Women improve one stat.