YORK City Ladies' defender Martha Ohr wants to 'sign off' in style with victory over York City Ladies Reserves in next week's County Cup Final.

Ohr, still only 18, joined the Minsterbelles last summer from Yorkshire rivals Leeds Ladies.

She is unlikely to play regularly for the team next season, however, as she is moving to Birmingham to study.

"My first season at York has been absolutely brilliant. It's such a fantastic group of ladies that I've really got on well with," she said. "It's a shame that I'm going to University next year because I would have loved to spend more time here."

Having arrived at York as an attacking midfielder, Ohr has played the majority of this season at right-back as the club finished sixth in the North East Regional Premier League.

"Last season, I was mostly playing in the Premier Reserve League, only just breaking into the first-team at the very back-end of the season," she reflected. "For me, if anything, it's got harder because the teams in this league are all fighting so hard to get that Premier League status through promotion.

"Just getting plenty of first-team minutes here has definitely improved my standard, especially as I am more relied on here than at Leeds where the reserve players could just come up for matches here and there to test them out."

Ohr is urging other girls to get involved with York City Ladies and has highlighted the important social aspect of the game.

"For players of a similar age to me (18) wanting to get involved with football, I would definitely say: just give it a go. I've played football for ten years now, but if you want to play for fun, for the social side and to get a bit fitter, there are loads of football teams out there that would love new, young players.

"Football is so much more fun than just going for a run or to the gym," she said. "It's a team sport, so you always have plenty of friends around and you can make it as serious or silly as you want. You just have to remember that every single player started out as a beginner, so why not give it a try!”

The Ladies' final game of the season is against City Ladies Reserves in the County Cup final at Nether Poppleton on April 23.

"It will be a bit odd to play the reserves because we do end up doing training matches with them," she admitted. "There are definitely friendships between the groups, even relationships, but obviously, the firsts want to win to prove we deserve our first-team shirts."

The Belles are the six-time winners and current holders of the Cup having beaten Middlesbrough on penalties in last season's final at Stokesley.

Last weekend, they lost 4-1 at fourth-placed Tynedale Ladies in their penultimate away league game of the season. The two clubs are due to meet again at Haxby Road this weekend. Megan Bramham scored the goal.