Legendary Lionesses honoured as record crowd signals new era for England’s women
Germany grab last-minute winner to take the gloss off historic Wembley showdown
The reports all point to the moment, in the 66th minute, when the record-breaking crowd was announced: 77,768 were at Wembley to witness a 2-1 defeat against Germany. But that is far from the whole story on a day when the history of English women’s football, as well as its future, felt as if they were in symmetry.
In November 1972, England played their first official match after the 50year Football Association ban on women’s football in this country was finally lifted. There is no record of how many people were in attendance that day as they took on Scotland in Greenock, but you can bet it was not more than 75,000.
Yesterday, the Lionesses took their latest giant step into the future of the women’s game, but it also felt poignantly like a reminder of the past.
At half-time, in lashing rain and in front of a crowd surpassing any seen for an England women’s game, a group of Lioness legends were given the recognition they have so long deserved.
Former coach and players in Hope Powell, Faye White, Rachel Yankey and Gill Coulthard – the first woman to receive 100 caps for England – were among the 60-strong pack of Lionesses who made their lap of honour in a game that could not have been possible without them laying the groundwork over decades of hard work in the shadows. All beaming, some waving England scarves, others high-fiving spectators. It was their moment at last.
But the future of what England have built was also apparent, even before the stadium gates opened. It was four hours ahead of kick-off when the real weight of what was being achieved hit home for the first time.
At Boxpark Wembley, children looked up in wonder as video montages of Jordan Nobbs, Leah Williamson and Steph Houghton played out on massive screens. Ruby Bromfield, aged nine, was there with her family, sitting wide-eyed after travelling from Middlesbrough. “She’s a total diehard fan and she’s totally overwhelmed,” her mother, Charissa, said. “This is huge. It has made her know it’s a serious sport.”
Amid the sea of face-painted chil- dren tiring themselves out waving flags, a woman sat in anticipation. This was Linda Pierce, attending only her second England match. At 70, she is part of a new wave of fans, inspired by a game defined by the players, who worked for little fanfare.
“I think it’s amazing,” she said. “I’ve never really followed football, we’ve got into it because of the World Cup. I prefer it to men’s football.”
From washing their own kits, paying to play for England and dreary away games in front of “barely-there” crowds, as Linda put it, the Lionesses’s desire to play over the past half a century could never be questioned. It is a history that is still so fresh that for players on the pitch yesterday it was their own reality not 10 years ago.
Jill Scott, the most-capped player in action for England at Wembley, is one of those, and said that the significance could not be downplayed.
“For the Olympics, a lot of people did buy tickets to be part of it, it wasn’t necessarily for women’s football,” she said of the 80,000 record crowd in 2012. “To think that everybody out there [now] wants to support this team is just a massive turning point.”
When Ellen White scored her equaliser, a raucous roar went up. “It was pretty special,” captain Steph Houghton said afterwards. “The moment that Ellen put the ball in the back of the net I couldn’t hear anything.”
England were back at the home of football for the first time in five years.
In that time the outcome did not change, but the crowd had grown by more than 30,000. On Tuesday England will play in the Stadion Strelecky ostrov, a 6,600 capacity ground in the Czech Republic. But it is about much more than numbers. Yesterday will remain the moment England and the FA made a statement that the women that built the game from the ground up were right there alongside those who are set to take it into a new era.