The real source of the problem is the English language, which is slow to pick up on the latest changes in social attitudes. ‘Lady’ or ‘Woman’?

Despite the growing need for gender equality, the words we use fail to keep up. We can still say ‘the Red Roses mastered the conditions well’ and ‘they’ve created a two-man overlap’; cricket uses ‘third man’ for women’s games, and nobody notices.

‘Man’ itself is a minefield, having two distinct uses, both ‘all human beings’ and 50% of human beings’.

How do we survive?

Female referees regularly address players as ‘Ladies’. There is no alternative. English doesn’t allow them to say: ‘Women, calm down!’ That is unthinkable. Did the Irish and English packs cringe when Aimee Barrett-Theron used the word to address them mid-match?

Neither they nor the coach Stella Mills quotes (‘Ladies, I just wanted to introduce myself…’) had an option. For them the word indicates respect. A great cricketer of the same generation as Stella Mills, Sarah Taylor, is happy to inspire her fellow players with: ‘Come on, ladies!’

Since the Second World War we have grown wary of using words that might give offence. But the process is always irregular. it’s very much a matter of generations; what is fine for grandmother is not for granddaughter, and vice versa.

For Mills the word ‘lady’ brings up immediate associations, all distasteful:

‘For me, it is a specific set of behaviours which women were previously, and are still to some extent, expected to demonstrate. They revolve around an idealised image of a woman, behaving in a ‘proper’ manner whilst being polite, graceful, and adhering to the general status quo. Basically, ‘ladies’ are to be seen and not heard.’

Sliding up and down

But these social terms slide up and down the scale of acceptability to an astonishing degree. An extreme example is the word ‘queen’. For us it at once indicates the first lady/woman of the land. It is directly connected to the Greek ‘guné, meaning ‘woman’ (gynaecology). But there is an English dialect variation ‘quean’ which means exactly the opposite, a woman at the base of society. You can look it up.
‘Lady’ too inhabits different rungs of the social scale. A lady-in-waiting at the royal court may well employ a ‘charlady’ to do her household chores. Yes, why not ‘charwoman’?

‘Woman’ derives from a doublet meaning ‘wife-man’. And ‘wife’ itself originally indicated ‘woman’!

As a man venturing into the world of women’s sport I have to be ultra-cautious. My webmaster (who is a woman) is careful to pick me up if my choice of words is unwise. But her position is not exactly the same as Stella Mills’, and therein lies the heart of the problem.

My two favourite moments were the Roses win over Ireland to win the Grand Slam for the first time since 2012, and then to be at Lord’s to witness England’s cricketers win the World Cup in such a dramatic way was just amazing.

Here is just a small sample of what we were able to enjoy:

Rugby

England recalled most of their Sevens players and in a 6 Nations series that was, for the first time, either televised or streamed live the Red Roses swept to a majestic Grand Slam title.

England win 2017 Grand Slam (Photo: Inpho)

Galvanised by their win the Roses travelled down under to compete in a tri-series with the best in the world: Australia, New Zealand and Canada, a warm-up tournament for the World Cup. The opposition may have been a little tougher but the results were the same as England put in great performances to win all three games and the tournament.

Onto the World Cup and the Roses romped through the group stages before beating France in the semi-final and setting up a long awaited final against New Zealand.  Despite beating the Black Ferns earlier in the year this time the New Zealanders had the final say winning by 41-32.

The final series of the year for the Red Roses was the Old Mutual Wealth Autumn Series where they would play Canada three times – could they bounce back from their disappointment in the World Cup – of course they could.

Simon Middleton introduced new players into the mix and Harlequin’s Jess Breach really hit the ground running, literally, as she scored six tries on debut.  The combination of experience and youth proved a successful one and the Roses took the series 3-0.

So, this year England’s Roses played 16, won 15, lost 1, scored 733 points and had just 210 scored against them.  They finished the year ranked no. 2 in the world.

6 Nations

France            26-13

Wales              63-0

Italy                 29-15

Scotland          64-0

Ireland            34-7

International Series

Australia         53-10

Canada           27-20

NZ                    29-21

World Cup

Spain               56-5

Italy                 56-13

USA                 47-26

France             20-3

NZ                    32-41

Old Mutual Wealth

Canada 1        79-5

Canada 2        49-12

Canada 3        69-1

Thanks to Bruce Perkins for the numbers.

England Hockey

England Captain Alex Danson (Photo: KOEN SUYK )

At the beginning of the year Olympians – still beaming from their success in Rio – and new faces excited to take their first steps in international hockey came together to start their new four-year cycle.

Medals:

European Championship Bronze

World League Semi-Finals Bronze

England’s return to competitive hockey as a new squad began in late February when they travelled to South Africa and won both matches in the two-game series, with eleven players making their senior England debuts during the trip including Anna Toman, Emily Defroand and Hannah Martin.

Next up was another test series with Spain in Madrid which saw the welcome return of Susannah Townsend from injury. However the series was lost 2-1 to the Spanish.

In June the squad returned home to face both Argentina and the Netherlands in front of packed crowds at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre for the Investec Internationals. A stunning comeback from 2-0 down against the Dutch also saw Alex Danson score her 100th international goal in front of home support and live on BT Sport.

England returned to South Africa in July for the World League Semi-Finals in Johannesburg and, despite losing to the USA in the semi-finals, put in a stunning performance against Argentina to win 5-2 and take bronze.

The events kept coming in 2017 and in August England set out to defend their EuroHockey crown. They met the Netherlands in the semi-final saw a fantastic match played out in front of 10,000 fans at the Wagener Stadium in Amsterdam but it was the hosts who edged the match 1-0. However England responded in their bronze game against Germany with the impressive Hannah Martin continuing to make a name for herself.

There was further a positive for England as defender Hollie Pearne-Webb was named Player of the Tournament for her outstanding performances at the back, proving herself to be one of the very best defenders in the world.

England under 21 women equalled their senior colleagues by claiming bronze in the EuroHockey Junior Championships in Valencia.

The year has been an exciting one from start to finish as the squad continues to progress and now heads into what can only be described as an action-packed 2018!

Football

It has been a tumultuous year for the Lionesses with a high point reaching the semi-finals of the Euros, where they lost out to the eventual winners the Netherlands by 3-0 and then losing their coach in a somewhat embarrassing debacle that thankfully hasn’t dampened the spirits or achievements of the players.  England’s Jodie Taylor did win the Golden Boot for her five goals throughout the competition.  She also went on to win the BT Action Woman of the Year Award.

Jodie Taylor (Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

The Lionesses continue their World Cup campaign under Mo Marley as we await announcement of the new coach.

In a push to promote the women’s game and achieve more female professionals the FA will are revising the women’s pyramid and are in the process of assessing applications for licences for the top tier.  Thus far those teams from the existing Super League to apply for status have been accepted, we await word of those that will join them for the 201/2019 season.

Manchester City women beat Birmingham City 4-1 in the FA Cup which was held at Wembley in front of 35,271 fans.

Cricket

England’s women won a thrilling World Cup Final in front of a packed Lord’s in what was my sporting moment of the year.  India were in a strong position to take the win until confronted by Anya Shrubsole who took 6 for 46 – I do remember saying that if England win this it will be a miracle – happy to believe they do happen!  England took the trophy by just 9 runs!

All the results here.

Anya Shrubsole (Photo: ICC)

England then went off to Australia to try and bring the Ashes back to England.  This proved a step too far, after losing the first two ODIs in the multi-format series and then drawing the test they needed to win all three IT20s.  Losing the first one meant Australia reached 8 points and retained the Ashes but England showed a massive amount of character to hold out for the draw and achieved some milestones on the way. Winning the second and third IT20s with the highest ever run chase and a maiden century from Danni Wyatt.

England’s women won the team award at the BT Action Woman of Year Award and also at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Rugby League

England’s Lionesses recorded a 2-0 series win over France in July before enduring a difficult World Cup in Australia where they won only one game.

However, with both WRLA Winter League and RFL Summer League both doing well and rugby league attracting more and more younger players the future has to be bright for England teams to come.

Wheelchair Tennis

Jordanne Whiley claimed her 10th Grand Slam title with her doubles win at Wimbledon with partner Yui Kamiji.

Great Britain’s Lucy Shuker partnered Stephane Houdet of France to claim the 2017 British Open Mixed Doubles title in August.

Boxing

Stacey Copeland turned professional and won her first bout in July.

The inspirational boxer also launched her Pave the Way programme.

Congratulations to all our sportswomen we look forward to everything 2018 has to bring.

As a site championing women’s sport we have covered more sport than ever, but looking back realise that we can do more and better and that is the aim for 2018.

We are delighted to have forged a new relationship with the FA that will enable more football content although we are going to begin the New Year with an article about Aussie Rules football.

More original content is also promised and we will continue our sporting spotlight series.  If there is anything you would like us to include then please do get in touch.

I should at this point state that these are my own opinions, that I am not an expert on any sport at all simply a fan; this website exists purely to promote women’s sport, and it is completely self-funded.

I can understand the desire to increase the Women’s Premiership from eight to ten teams but to my simple mind, the way to do that would be to include the top teams from both Championship North 1 and Championship South 1.  Firwood Waterloo as Championship North 1 leaders have been included but so have Loughborough who currently sit in 5^th position in the league.  Whilst Championship South 1 league leaders Thurrock have been completely overlooked and Gloucester-Hartpury Women’s RFC who play in the Midlands Championship II are included.  Even more confusing Lichfield Ladies are the only team currently playing in the Premiership to be left out.

RFU say there was a bid process and fourteen teams applied for just ten places in the new league, fair enough.  An article on the RFU website just last October extolling the virtues of Lichfield Ladies, currently just one point behind Bristol Ladies at the top of the Premiership, would have indicated that they would be a shoe in but instead they will be relegated to the Championship after 15 years of playing Premiership Rugby.

To quote  from the RFU piece:

Lichfield are making a huge impression on girls’ rugby from grassroots to elite level, on and off the pitch……..

The club’s player pathway is also thriving, with several players in their first-team squad having appeared in their junior sides.

The Midlands outfit have in their squad one of the world’s best women’s rugby players in World Cup winner and Team GB sevens captain Emily Scarratt.

The 26-year-old moved to Lichfield before the 2007/08 season to play for their senior side and has remained at the club ever since.

Scarratt cannot believe how far Lichfield has come since she joined, and that this season the club has a massive opportunity to win their first Women’s Premiership title.

“It’s massively developed since I first moved, they only had an U18s and a senior team then, now they’ve got seven female teams,” said Scarratt……..

This year Lichfield have contributed eight internationals to the Six Nations including for England: Emily Scarratt (63 caps), Justine Lucas (16 caps), Harriet Millar-Mills (40 caps) Amy Cokayne (22 caps), 21 Natasha Hunt (35 caps) – that’s a third of the team!

It can be neither coincidence or pure luck to have accumulated such talent in the side.

Now these players are all facing a huge dilemma; stay with the Club they love and put their international careers at risk or find another club.

Since there will be no promotion or relegation for two seasons then Lichfield are consigned to the second tier of English rugby for at least 3 seasons, very significant for players wishing to play at the highest level possible.

Such is the outrage at the way in which the heart has been ripped out of this club that a petition has been started on change.org which now has more than 4,000 signatures:

https://www.change.org/p/rfu-rfu-to-review-lichfield-ladies-bid

The RFU has done an enormous amount of work to encourage more girls and women to take up rugby but from an outsider it would almost seem as if the decisions have been taken on the Super Rugby League without actually taking into account the contribution being made of the existing clubs.

Of course there is precedent for this kind of thing as when the FA formed the Women’s Super League Doncaster Belles, with their great history of success in women’s football, were sacrificed for the newly formed Manchester City, is it wrong to expect more from rugby and better behaviour?

It’s tragic that a side that may win the Premiership this season will face relegation and that this summer’s 25 year anniversary for Lichfield may well be a much sadder event than originally planned.

Kudos to Director of Rugby Becky Williams for saying that the club will continue and will strive to keep playing at the highest level, but what a massive kick in the teeth.

NZ’s Natasha Hansen in women’s sprint (Photo: David Powell)

The first surprise was the air lock system at the door, to keep the stadium at a constant temperature.  The second that struck immediately is that the bank that seems steep on the TV seems extraordinarily steep up close.  I heard the comedian Huw Dennis, who is doing a cycling event for Sport Relief, say that it is like cycling in a bath tub – and the analogy is about right!  My admiration for the bravery and skill of the cyclists increased considerably.

First on the track, one of the most famous women cyclists of all, Anna Meares racing compatriot Stephanie Morton in the women’s sprint, a famous game of cat and mouse, where the riders show amazing skill holding their bikes on the track at almost a standstill and then racing off with incredible bursts of speed.  We were not there for the final but were surprised to see that Meares ended in fourth place with Kristina Vogel beating her in the battle for a bronze medal.  The gold and silver were taken by Chinese cyclists Tianshi Zhong and Lin Junhong.

The next impressive thing about day is that the different events continue seamlessly, as one lot of riders come off the track those taking place in the next are all ready to go, no unnecessary delays – even after a couple of crashes, people were out very quickly to make sure there was no damage to the track and to clear any detritus away.

The next treat in store was to be able to see Laura Trott take part in two of her Omnium events, the time trial and the flying lap – my father in law sitting beside me, kept saying “I can’t believe she’s so small” and tiny she may be but if ever an athlete had the heart of a lion it would be Laura Trott!  She put in a brilliant display over the two events and the crowd duly showed both its admiration and partisan pride!  The only disappointment would be not actually being there to cheer her onto another gold medal.  Laura picked up the Gold medal having increased her lead from 12 points to 18 after the final event, Laurie Berthon of France took the silver and Sarah Hamm of the USA bronze.

Men’s Kierin (Photo: David Powell)

The other event we saw was several heats of the Keirin featuring our own Jason Kenny, these events featured two crashes on the track the first involving two riders in Kenny’s heat and I was waiting for him to fall victim too, since it seemed to happen all around him and when you see how fast they ride and how close together, the only surprise is that there aren’t more clashes. It’s a brutal race but very exciting.  I should add that each of the cyclists who fell were up on their feet again as soon as they could disengage from their bikes and I don’t believe there was any serious injury.

Unfortunately Jason Kenny was unable to finish in the medals which were taken by Joachim Ellers of Germany (gold), Edward Dawkins of New Zealand (silver) and Mohd Azizulhasni bin Awang of Malaysia (bronze).

The atmosphere in the arena was incredible and whenever there was a GB rider on the track the sound rose several notches – I can only imagine what it was like in the afternoon when both Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins were competing in the Madison.

So, how was my first experience in the Velodrome – awesome!  Would I go back for more – in a heartbeat and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone else too.  I may not understand the complexities of all the different races, but the commentator does a great job of explaining who is doing what, so you at least know what’s going on at any given time!

Finally a thank you to my family, for including me in the Christmas present treat and to my brother in law for the great photos.

Lead photo above shows Laura Trott preparing for her race (inevitable camera inches away).

Three times this week people have said to me, somewhat incredulously – ‘there’s a women’s 6 Nations – I didn’t know!’

Well, if you are one of the many people whose only connection to rugby is to watch the 6 Nations each year or the World Cup every four years, and you only watched the TV coverage you probably wouldn’t.  And how depressing is that?

The TV programmes begin about an hour before each match is due to take place and the great and the good minutely dissect previous performances, team selections etc etc and there is no time to feature any of the women’s matches?!

Admittedly last year, John Inverdale introduced a brief highlight of women’s matches that took about 90 seconds and seemed even worse than not mentioning the competition at all, so maybe I’m just difficult to please.

England’s women are WORLD CHAMPIONS and despite having to build a new team, after losing 19 players to 7s and professional contracts, they are currently at the top of the table after three rounds of the competition, with Wales and France to play.  France sit in second place and Ireland, last year’s winners, are in fourth place.

So, how to we improve on this dire situation and get out of the spiral of no money, no coverage, no interest?

Recently I’ve seen from press releases that the RFU have got sponsorship for the U20s (men) and the Scottish RFU have also got sponsorship for their men’s team – so why don’t these organisations wrap the equivalent women’s teams into their sponsorship deals?

Football, hockey, cricket have all got excellent sponsorship deals in place for the women’s teams as indeed have netball, and it is essential that sponsorship is obtained for women’s rugby too, including the Women’s Premiership and Championship leagues.

I still find it incredulous that after winning the World Cup organisations weren’t falling over themselves to sponsor the England team – they are the epitome of everything that is good in sport and wonderful role models.

I look at parallels with the England women’s football team who achieved 3^rd place in the FIFA World Cup last summer.

Before going to the World Cup the FA arranged a friendly at Wembley – the take up on tickets the so great the FA had to cap the numbers at 55,000 because of travel difficulties.

The women’s football team have also had very public support from within the football community: David Beckham, Roy Hodgson, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand to name but a few – it all makes a difference.

The football World Cup got television coverage and quite good media coverage also, the BBC ‘catch-up’ on line was excellent.

The FA have also agreed to show the women’s FA Cup at Wembley after a successful trial last year and tonight BBC1 will show live coverage of England women playing the USA in the SheBelieves Cup (admittedly at midnight but nevertheless its on TV).

All very positive from the FA.

Back to rugby and the brilliant women’s 7s London tournament was cancelled this year as it was considered not viable by the RFU.  After staging it at the Stoop, in competition with the men’s 7s at Twickenham, and giving no publicity to the event at all in 2015.

4tlos attended the final day of the London 7s. It was my first visit to the Stoop and we had trouble finding the ground, no posters, no directions and people I spoke to on the way had no idea there was a women’s tournament taking place at all.

It really wouldn’t take a lot of effort to stage a proper showcase event that would do justice to the rugby talent on show from across the world.

France will be staging a 7s event this year, and we must also look to France to see how they have developed enthusiasm and support for the women’s game.

The World Cup hosted by France in 2014 achieved really good crowds and I noticed last year, watching England play France in the 6 Nations, that the French men’s team were in the crowd supporting and that was great to see.

At the France home game against Ireland there was a crowd of 11,000 and the match was televised.  If the French can do this then why can’t we?

It’s about time we really got behind our women’s teams and give them the support they deserve.

So one area that hopefully the FA will address, as they announce the launch of the next phase of their Premier League, Football League and Sport England girls football programme, is the prize money granted to participants in the Women’s FA Cup.

Yesterday winners Chelsea won the prize sum of £5,000 (compared to £1.8million won by Arsenal this year); runners up Notts County will have added just £2,000 to their coffers, which I’m sure will barely have covered the expenses for their trip to London.  [Runners up of the men’s competition this year won just £900,000 in comparison.] They will also have been able to claim just half that offered to the male counterparts in expenses.  Its a sad fact of life that the richer you are the less you have to pay for, but this is an inequity that is ridiculous.

Winners of the 2nd round of the men’s competition won £4,500 this year and 3rd round £7,500, whereas winners of the 2nd and 3rd round of the women’s competition won £300 and £400 respectively.

Although I am not advocating equal prize money, and realise that the draw of the men’s game is at the moment far above that of the women’s, since the ground was a just over a third full perhaps an increase of ten times the current rate of prize money would be appropriate, that would add vitally important funds to the women’s game and be a prize truly worth aiming for.

If, as I read last night, the FA have said that the Final will continue to be held at Wembley, while a fantastic thing for women’s football, the cost of staying in London overnight, travelling to London etc is one that the FA will have to help clubs with.  Frankly it is ludicrous that a team should get all the kudos of reaching the Final of this most prestigious competition to end up out of pocket.

In the meantime the clubs will have to work out how they cope for a whole season without their best players; then will said players be able to get back into their club sides when their Sevens’ contracts come to an end and/or they are released back.

The contracts awarded after the winning of the Women’s World Cup were to be reviewed at the end of a year; I don’t know if any changes have been made to the list of players involved, but one would assume that there must be some tinkering.

Although it was brilliant news that some of the players were to become professional I had assumed that it was a reward for how brilliantly they had done during the World Cup.  Now I’m not so sure.  I wonder how the players feel who have now had club rugby taken away, and how happy most of them were at not featuring in any of the 6 Nations.

The life-span of a sevens’ player must also be shorter because of the physicality involved, it must surely be a young person’s game.

Since the awarding of so few contracts in both rugby and cricket I am wondering about how other players are able to compete, whilst juggling jobs and training to contest the few places available with professional athletes.

When I see how the FA have capitalised in the success of the Women’s World Cup and the club sides are now benefiting from increased attention, bigger gates etc it’s a real shame that the rugby side that actually won their World Cup were not able to gain the same kind of positive attention for their respective clubs.

The RFU also made a massive error in the marketing of the Women’s Sevens in London where they were tucked away at the Stoop with virtually no marketing or publicity at all and played first class rugby in front of a hand full of fans, whilst all the fanfare took place metres away at Twickenham.  You couldn’t help but feel that the women’s sides were treated very poorly at that tournament.

Add to all that the fact that at some stage in the process the authorities are going to decide to add some Scottish and Welsh players to the mix to turn the England sevens side into a GB one for the Olympics, then some of our players will have missed out in every direction.

No-one ever says that Jess Ennis is a less gifted athlete than say Greg Rutherford, although without doubt given his size and strength he can jump further and probably run faster than her.  In fact in athletics women seem to be accepted and lauded alongside the male athletes and that is what we are striving for across the board.

I am also uncomfortable with the comparison between the men’s and women’s games on an achievement level, as an England fan I want all our teams to do well, and the argument that you should support the women because they are doing better than the men, doesn’t sit well with me at all.  It shouldn’t be an either or, as sports fans it’s OK to support men’s and women’s; rugby and football and so on.

Another male journalist suggested there had been saturation coverage of the Women’s World Cup – if he really thinks showing some matches on BBC3 and the rest on the red button is saturation how will he react to England’s quarter final game being on BBC1?  Yet another one wrote that given all the hype he decided to watch one of the matches and guess what, it was rubbish – so the inference is that all of the matches are rubbish.  I’ve watched plenty of dire premier league matches, are they a reflection of the league as a whole – no. That’s the beauty of sport, sometimes it exceeds expectation and sometimes disappoints, and a lot is in the eye of the beholder.  A bit like life in general really.

Quite a lot of the internet trolls spouting off about women’s football, actually admit to not liking football at all – no-one is asking them to.

Another repeated argument is: if women can’t be bothered to watch women’s teams then why should men?  Good question, but of more relevance is how to get real sports fans watching men’s and women’s games – a topic for another day.

So, what I’m saying is: if you don’t like women’s sport – don’t watch it – simple.  If you are a genuine sports fan and haven’t watched women’s sport then give it a go, you may be surprised.

Many people will be surprised that Cameroon have progressed to the last 16 instead of Nigeria but the draw for Nigeria was very tough, having to face one of the favourites in USA plus Sweden and Australia but it is a shame that we won’t be seeing any more of Asisat Oshoala in this tournament.  I have also read about the lack of investment into the women’s game in Africa and because of that the poor preparation for a major tournament.  Hopefully this will begin to change.

England started their campaign against France and deployed the most negative tactics possible which only resulted in putting themselves under constant pressure.  However, if the aim was to restrict the loss to one goal then it paid off, but how much more satisfying it would have been if they had actually tried to win.  Colombia showed them how by upsetting the books and beating France by 2 goals to nil.

England employed a more attacking tactic when they took on Mexico but they were still held out until Fran Kirby showed some individual skill and determination to make the breakthrough.  With the return of Karen Carney from injury there was some added zip to the team and it was obvious how much the team had missed Carney’s flair.

In the meantime Germany, who had ruthlessly defeated Ivory Coast by 10 goals to nil in the first round of the competition were held to a one all draw by Norway in the second game, and the USA (who have tipped themselves to win the tournament) who had beaten Australia 3-1 in round 1 were held to a 0-0 draw against Sweden.

England were in the position of needing to win their last match against Colombia and played the first half with real intent and were leading at half time by 2-0.  Things didn’t go so smoothly in the second half, however, but despite a loss of rhythm did hang on to win by 2-1 and with France beating Mexico by 5-0 England finished second in  Group F and go into the last sixteen to face the talented Norwegian side.

There have been the inevitable negative comments about this women’s football tournament – but that will always happen.  The one criticism I have is at the lack of consistency; why was Nigeria’s Ugo Njoku retrospectively banned for 3 matches for elbowing Sam Kerr (Australia) – an incident unseen by officials – when a very obvious, deliberate elbow on Laura Bassett of England by France’s Camille Abily went unpunished.  FIFA saw no reason to take any action and the FA did not appeal – why?  To anyone watching the match, it was possible to see the swelling on Bassett’s face grow minute by minute and the challenge was without a doubt dangerous – one can only hope there is no serious injury.

Then there was probably the most obvious hand ball I’ve ever seen, which somehow was not spotted by anyone except the crowd, players and commentators, this occurred in the Colombia v France match – a penalty would have brought France right back into the game.  But the tactic from players and managers seems to be to make as little fuss as possible.

The artificial turf has, as expected, had an impact on the games in slowing the ball down.  It also heats up in the summer temperatures and gives an unpleasant burn on the skin.  Constant watering does help but I still find it difficult to accept that this was the only solution for a tournament in Canada and the refusal from the Canadian FA and FIFA to negotiate with the players extremely disrespectful.

As for the conversation on women’s teams being coached by women or refereed by women; I hope to see the day when no-one comments on the gender of the coach or referee, only their ability and that the best person is hired for the job regardless of gender, race or creed.  What is really required is a bigger pool of women qualified as coaches and referees.

Aside from these little gripes, the tournament has been really enjoyable and I’m looking forward to the intriguing ties in the next couple of weeks and hoping to see more great goals, individual skill and the passion and commitment that you expect from the World Cup.  The best possible result – thousands of little girls inspired to take up the game and emulate their heroes on the field.

Finally a mention for the BBC – I really loving ‘the Catch-Up’ it’s a great piece each day.

It seems as if this is a culmination of a lifetime’s work, and when I look back to the generations who were not even permitted to play the sport; when I was coaching youngsters the mothers who asked me not to encourage their daughters as they didn’t want them playing the football; the time when schools wouldn’t let the girls play and the FA would not countenance girls’ leagues – we have really come a very long way.

I look at the women in the current team, some of whom had to go to the USA to play; Fara who endured seven years of homelessness with only her football to keep her going; Eni Aluko about to qualify for as a lawyer, Karen Carney on the verge of her 100th cap; Alex Scott, who dreamt of this as she played on a concrete pitch; women who have had to juggle jobs and/or studying with intensive training – how did/do they manage?

Do they worry that the occasion, with 55,000 eager, happy supporters will get to them and impede their performance, or will the encouragement give them the confidence to play at their best?  I wonder if they managed to sleep last night or whether the excitement was too much.

I am convinced that the combined success of our rugby team winning the World Cup this summer, and the cricket team retaining the Ashes and going on to series wins over India and South Africa has all helped to raise the profile of women’s sport this year.  Its been incredible so far.

Whatever the result on Sunday, the fact that the women’s team had the potential support to fill the stadium must have given many a lot to think about.

And we will be able to say that we were there, cheering the team on and witnessing this historic occasion – COME ON ENGLAND!