A remarkable achievement has graced British youth football as the Bournemouth-based Queens Park Ladies U12s team secured the coveted Bournemouth Boys League title with an undefeated record.
The Queens Park Ladies clinched the title with a commanding 3-0 victory against Lymington Town FC U12 Spirit on April 14.
Throughout the season, the all-girls team exhibited remarkable skill, scoring a total of 61 goals while conceding only 11, solidifying their dominance in a league predominantly composed of boys.
Toby Green, chairman and manager of Queens Park Ladies, expressed profound pride in the team's historic accomplishment, hailing them as "invincibles".
“What an incredible season it’s been! Our girls have proven themselves as invincibles," Green said.
Speaking to IOL Green explained that even though it is a boys tournament “what a lot of people don’t realise is that boys leagues in England are officially mixed leagues which means that boys and girls can play in them”.
“The reality is that girls don’t really want to do that as the boys are generally very good but we knew our girls were strong and had six years worth of training so when we applied to enter the boys league, although the County Football Association were a bit apprehensive at first, we were welcomed after we explained how much work the girls had put into training building up to the tournament.”
On why, in his opinion, were the girls so much better than the boys teams, Green explained that the girls began practising 9-a-side games at a much younger age than usual as younger age groups play with smaller sides. For example, U10’s would play with 7-a-side teams instead of 9-a-side.
Sharing some training tips and advice for girls teams looking to compete with the boys in South Africa, Green said that “even though the girls will need to try to match the boys strength and aggressiveness in winning the ball, there is no gap in skill and ability. Practice just as much as the boys do, once or twice a week as a team with footwork practice daily, there’s no reason girls cannot compete with the boys teams.”
Although the girls were underestimated in the beginning of the tournament, the other teams quickly realised that they were indeed a strong team.
“We’d turn up to games and the boys would be laughing a little bit saying things like ‘I’m gonna score 5 goals today’ but that didn’t happen and the boys quickly learned that they were in a real game,” Green laughed.
The team will be promoted into the Division Two U13’s next season and will be playing against the U13 boys teams. Green hoped that the girls would then go on to play in the national U13 and U14 leagues.
IOL