Now every girl can dream of following Rachel to the top
BACK in 2004, when the Northern Ireland women’s football team was resurrected, everyone knew that one girl at school who played the sport.
She always mucked in with the boys and was the subject of plenty of discussion.
“Is that a girl playing? Really?” It’s to that backdrop that many of this current crop of Northern Ireland stars honed their skills.
But their heroic exploits are helping to make sure it will never be the same for the generations coming behind.
Until very recently, it had been unthinkable that a Northern Ireland women’s team would knock on the door of a major tournament. Now a talented, welldrilled, entertaining team managed by Kenny Shiels are one play-off match away from the Women’s Euro 2022 finals.
They will know in February who they will face in the two-leg tie in April.
It means the world to a country full of young girls who would have been packing Seaview out had supporters been allowed on what was the biggest night yet in Northern Ireland women’s football history to cheer their side to that victory over the Faroe Islands.
“We hope that young girls watching tonight want to aspire to be us one day,” said Northern Ireland and Liverpool star Rachel Furness.
And why wouldn’t they? That’s why this history-making feat is so important. Like nothing else, success breeds success. It’s inspiration.
Figures released by the Irish FA last year revealed there were 1,600 women registered as players in local leagues. The target is to double that figure by 2024, and the national team’s road to the play-off is game-changing in that regard.
In previous years, there were no female role models to aspire to — well, not for anyone but the most enthusiastic of observers. If they can’t see, they can’t be. And despite the efforts of former manager Alfie Wylie and his determined players, they were barely ever given the limelight.
Now any young girl with a passing interest in football will know exactly who Rachel Furness is. Any aspiring midfielder will be looking up to Birmingham City superstar Chloe McCarron. A pacy winger will be watching Lauren Wade’s every move at Glasgow City. And for any centre half, Ashley Hutton is the benchmark.
It marks reward for years of unseen work behind the scenes by the likes of Wylie, Shiels and former international and the Irish FA Foundation’s Women’s Domestic Manager Gail Redmond, as well as many others.
And it can’t be underestimated just how big a change they have succeeded in making.
“For the players like myself who played when nobody even knew there was a women’s team, it’s just amazing,” said Redmond.
It’s 16 years since the women’s team got back into action, initially playing in the Algarve Cup, and coming last, in both 2004 and 2005. Redmond was there.
“The fact that we had to pay to go and for our gear sets the tone for how it was back then,” she recalled. “Since then we’ve been able to invest for young girls to be able to play. More needs to be done but we’ve come a long way.”
Worlds apart. Now the current crop are in the media spotlight, at long last. They’re role models, they’re heroes and they’ve made sure things will never be the same again.
“I just want every young girl to know,” said captain Marissa Callaghan, “dream big. Anything is possible.”
The ultimate game changers.