It’s no secret the Club is extremely proud of the pathway available to homegrown talent across our men’s and women’s teams, which allows future stars to progress and feature.
This was the case for Gareth Taylor’s team last term as a number of promising players made their debuts, or were afforded greater exposure to our senior side.
A perfect example of this was in our 6-0 Continental Cup victory over Blackburn Rovers at the Academy Stadium in October 2022.
Not only did we begin the defence of our trophy in perfect fashion, but a total of six Academy products made their bows in sky blue.
Sandy MacIver, who spent time in our youth system and re-joined the Club ahead of the season after a fantastic two-year spell at Everton from 2020 to 2022, started between the sticks.
The impressive goalkeeper was then joined on the field by fellow Academy alumnus Annie Hutchings, Lois Marley-Paraskevas, Gracie Prior and Emma Siddal, who each made their senior bows from the substitutes bench alongside fellow youngster Jemima Dahou.
It represented a moment to savour for all of those who were involved in their City journeys, particularly for Marley-Paraskevas, who even provided an assist for Julie Blakstad on her first senior bow.
For Dahou, though, there would be more to come as she netted her first goal for the Club in a strong FA Cup success against Bristol City in February.
With the scoreline reading 7-1 in the closing stages, the day would prove to be one to savour for the 17-year-old when she calmly fired home a Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw cut-back to secure her maiden senior goal.
In total, the versatile midfielder made three appearances in all competitions with her final outing coming from the bench in our final day Barclays Women’s Super League 3-2 success over Everton.
The future is certainly bright!
