Lionesses won over this Scot!

THERE are certain cliches you’re expected to live up to as a Scot living in England.

Irn Bru should be revered and consumed whenever possible. Showing any sign of displeasure at wet or cold weather will always be met with “But I thought you were from Scotland?”. People mentioning anyone else from Scotland put a slight rising inflexion at the end of the sentence as if to say “you might know them?”. As though the country were about the same size as West Bridgford.

You will be called “Jock” and “Jimmy” fairly frequently and, in the end, it’s usually easier to smile and nod along as though it’s a brand new and completely hilarious joke.

But first and foremost, the primary rule for Scots, not just south of the border but anywhere in the world, is a sporting one – whoever England are playing, and in whatever sport, you should support the opposition. It’s not an anti-english thing – I wouldn’t go along with it if it was – but more an age-old sporting rivalry. It’s a long-running national joke, much like the Scotland football team.

For me at least – and I never expected to say this – but the Lionesses have changed this.

I’ll admit, it felt slightly uneasy at first, breaking the habit of a lifetime and wanting an England team to win. It crept in early in the tournament, not just from their actions on the pitch, but from their words off it.

The spirit of optimism behind and among the team was hard to resist, and resenting the rising tide of positive social change they’ve encapsulated would have been churlish to the point of obtuse.

As always in football, there is more hyperbole than you can shake a stick at, but Sunday’s final really did become about more than just a match, and when Serena Wiegmann said afterwards “we have changed society”, it’s impossible to disagree.

It would be easy to complacently assume, given the unprecedented levels of optimism in the last few days, that the inequalities facing women’s sport – at both elite and grassroots levels – have been magically washed aside.

There are still hills to climb, of course. But the transformation of the view of women’s sport in the last few weeks has been phenomenal, if massively overdue.

You’ll perhaps understand, given my patriotic loyalties, that the phrase “it’s coming home” becomes slightly grating every few years.

But if what has come home is even a fraction of the attitudinal change the current mood believes there can be, then I’m all here for it.