- LCFC Women youngster Lydia Tilbury-Henry collected the Academy Player of the Season Award
- Monique Robinson and Saskia Morris were also nominated from City’s Academy Team
- Foxes legend Matt Elliott presented her award at the Club’s End of Season Awards evening
- Tilbury-Henry gave her immediate reaction to receiving the prize to LCFC TV on Monday
An excellent maiden campaign for the LCFC Women Academy Team saw the young Foxes win the FA WSL Academy League Plate competition, beating Arsenal 2-0 in the final, with the 18-year-old scoring a stunning opener during last month’s showpiece in Loughborough.
City’s youngsters also confirmed a third-place finish in the WSL Academy League, completing a fine first season at this level for Tilbury-Henry and the team managed by LCFC Women’s Academy Lead and WSL Academy Head Coach, Louis Sowe.
“It feels amazing,” she exclaimed to LCFC TV shortly after receiving her award from Club legend Matt Elliott. “I’m actually so surprised, I didn’t think it would be me compared to the team-mates I was up against, but it feels so good.
“Coming into this, being our debut season in this league, we weren’t expecting much, we weren’t expecting silverware, but for us to go on and finish third and win the Plate, that is amazing for us as a team. And even for Leicester City as a club, showing that we can come in on a debut season and go and win the Plate.
“I can’t even describe it! I’d just come back from injury, that was my first game back. I wasn’t even expecting to get many minutes and then for me to go and help my team win by getting a goal, I was overjoyed. And you can probably see when I was celebrating, I was just jumping up and down, I didn’t know what to do!”
The forward managed an impressive tally of 10 goals in 22 matches for Leicester’s Academy Team across all competitions in 2021/22 and is aspiring to improve further next year, with the long-term goal of making a first senior appearance in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
She added: “Definitely my aim is to try and break into that first team and be representing Leicester on a bigger scale and try to get into that WSL side, after being able to get double digits in goals in my first time in this league.
“To get 10 goals, up against teams like Manchester United and Chelsea, it’s definitely something I could help bring into the first team as well and try to score some goals for them.”