Defender Phoebe Richards-Reeves reflects on her rise through the ranks at Posh and the Development Squad’s start to the season as they reach the halfway point.
The Posh Women Development Squad currently sit in third place in East Midland’s Women’s Regional Football League Division One South. With four wins and three losses so far, the season can be seen as positive given a managerial change and partial squad overload at the beginning of the campaign.
One of the returning players in the development squad this season was full-back Phoebe Richards-Reeves, who has featured in regular games this season and grown through the ranks at Posh.
Richards-Reeves said: “Considering we’ve had new management and new players, I think we’ve had a very decent start to the season. Compared to last season, in particular, we have already accumulated more points this season than we did last season, so that is a major turnaround in form already.”
Being a new squad can be challenging for any club, but Richards-Reeves voiced how quickly the squad has gelled together and believes the club can remain in the top three this season, a big improvement from the last campaign that saw the Development Squad narrowly avoid relegation.
“We worked a lot in pre-season getting to know each other and I think that has definitely been a factor in our performances so far this season. We lost the opening game of the season but have bounced back immediately.
“As a squad, we’ve gelled together, and it already feels like we have been a squad for ages. We know each other’s playing styles which helps our performances on the pitch. We’ve had a few wobbles over the past few games due to injuries but I think we can definitely bounce back.”
“As a team, we want to get as high up the table as we can. Maintaining our place in the top three would be really good but we have the ability to win the league. Getting promoted would be the cherry on the cake!”
The defender has been with Posh since she was 11, appearing for the U12s and has progressed through the Elite Talent Centre up to the U16s. Last season, Richards-Reeves made the step up to the Development Squad at just the age of 16, while seeing numerous Development Squad players making the step up to the first team this season, including Neive Corry, Nicole Hendrick and Andreia Oliveira. She comments, “seeing people go to the first team from the squad is a real confidence boost for all the players to achieve the same thing."