Combined girls’ team beat Bowen Secondary to retain C Division football title

SINGAPORE – When the combined girls’ football team made their National School Games debut in 2023, they were building from scratch and forced to endure humiliating heavy defeats, including one 20-0 loss.

But the team, comprising players from Boon Lay Secondary School, Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) and Westwood Secondary School – collectively known as Centre-based Partnership (CBP) W3 – have turned things around in just a few years.

They bagged their maiden C Division title in 2025, before retaining their crown on Aug 20 with a 7-1 thrashing of Bowen Secondary School at Our Tampines Hub. Their girls also edged out Meridian Secondary School 2-1 to claim their first B Division title in April.

Despite their latest success, CBP W3 coach Fahrish Khan stressed that winning is not the project’s sole objective, with player development also a key focus.

The number of players in CBP W3’s C and B Division squads has since grown to over 100, and they now have two teams in each division.

Fahrish said: “At the start of this project, the team was losing 21-0, 19-0 because we were new and we were trying to build it.

“Through the years, things improved – the recruitment was better, the players coming in were good and with the merging of three schools, there was more communication between teachers and coaches and things got better.”

While things can still improve, he believes the team’s performances this campaign are a sign of progress.

“That’s why the output is shown here on the pitch,” added Fahrish.

“In general, we want to raise the level of players in the team and we want to provide more players into the ecosystem for the national team coach to choose from.”

Having different teams also keeps players motivated to continue improving while providing opportunities for as many players as possible.

“At the end of the day, we want to build the ecosystem; we want to make sure that when these players get up to the highest level, they are ready to play. That’s the whole point of the project,” said Fahrish.

“We generally want to push and make sure the players are levelling up every time.”

That depth was on display in the C Division final, with CBP W3’s seven goals coming from six different players.

The defending champions dominated possession and needed just two minutes to break the deadlock, with Siaw Yun Rou finding the net.

Goals by Irene Liu and Antonia Griva Tzimopoulou in the fourth and ninth minutes respectively made it 3-0.

Captain Kayla Lim then produced a superb free kick from the edge of the box six minutes later, curling the ball into the top-left corner to put CBP W3 4-0 ahead.

They showed no signs of easing off as Janelle Lee added a fifth in the 20th minute after getting past Bowen’s defence and firing into the bottom-left corner, before Antonia scored her second goal of the match two minutes later to make it 6-0 at the interval.

Bowen put up an improved performance after the break, tightening their defence and pressing higher up the pitch. Their determination was rewarded when Emilie Tan struck a long-range effort that flew beyond the CBP W3 goalkeeper Clarisse Peck to give them a consolation goal.

CBP W3, however, had the final say, when substitute Asiyah Mariam Haja Jahabardeen scored in added time to put the result beyond doubt.

Right-winger Antonia, 14, who is from MGS, said: “I feel very proud of our team because I feel like we came a long way. We had our ups and downs, but we worked through it.

“At first, our chemistry wasn’t too good, but after a lot of training, everyone put in a lot of effort to try and work with each other.”

Last season’s title also brought greater expectations, something the players had to learn to manage.

“I’m really proud of our team too because we have super high expectations from every single team, coach, teacher out there and everybody expects us to do great things in a competition,” said captain Kayla, 14, who is also from MGS.

“So it’s been challenging along the way to uphold those expectations, but our team have done a great job.”

While the result did not go Bowen’s way, their players took encouragement from the resilience they showed even after conceding six goals in the first half.

Reaching the final was an achievement by itself, with their previous final appearance coming in 2018 when they won the title.

Vice-captain Emilie, 14, said: “It’s good that Bowen made it to the final because it’s been a long time and we managed to score.

“We came here with high hopes but it didn’t turn out the way we wanted but we managed to go home with one goal.”

Captain Qisya Dania Muhammad Nur Afif, 14, added: “The whole team had resilience and we persevered all the way till the end. We didn’t give up mid-game and in the second half we had a good mindset and we made it through all the way.”