The squad of Netherton United under-14s knew where to head when they got to Wembley, to watch England women’s first ever game in the new stadium on Sunday. They gathered under the statue of Sir Bobby Moore, put their arms around each other and starting chanting. “Wemb-er-ley! Wemb-er-ley! We’re the famous Eng-er-land and we’re off to Wemb-er-ley!”
The record crowd of 45,000 England fans may have left with hopes of a glorious victory dashed by the European champions, Germany, as the second-ranked team in the world beat the home side 3-0, but they refused to let the result, or the rain, dampen their spirits.
Mai Moncaster explained just what the day meant to her and her Netherton team-mates. “Everything, just everything,” said the 13-year-old, making sure it was noted that she was currently top scorer in her Cambridgeshire league. “We look at these women playing today and we think if we follow our hopes and dreams, that could be us.”
With the St George’s cross daubed on to faces and draped round small shoulders, families poured into Wembley for the historic match and, despite a commanding and occasionally sobering performance from the superior German side, the chanting and cheers – accompanied by jaunty tunes from the England supporters’ band – rang around the ground for the full 90 minutes.
Ticket prices of £10 for adults and £2 for children helped ensure the game was a sell-out, albeit capped at 55,000 because of planned engineering works on London’s transport system, and it was hailed as a landmark moment for the women’s game. That sense was boosted further on Sunday with the news that the BBC would cover all games in next years women’s World Cup in Canada across all its platforms.
Nicole Austin, 13, a goalkeeper for Kettering FC Under-14s, dragged three generations of the Austin family along for her first Wembley game. “I’m just speechless, I’m so excited,” she said, fluffy England blanket wrapped round her shoulders to keep off the rain. Grandad Reg, 56, has watched the men’s team here dozens of times. Did he ever think as a young man he would be here watching the women? “Not in a million years,” he said. “To be honest it’s my granddaughter playing football that has changed how I feel about the women’s game. What I love is that they play it for the football, not like some of these superstars who you know are playing it for the money.”
This is part of the reason that Sophie Downey, 27, and Rachel O’Sullivan, 26, have spent most of their free time and all their money following England and other women’s teams around the world for their website Girls on the Ball. They got the bug watching Team GB play Brazil at London 2012, and providing match reports has become something of an obsession with the pair travelling to 100 matches, covering 31,000 miles to places as far flung as Ukraine, Belarus and Montenegro so far this year.
“You do ask yourself what the hell you’re doing when you’ve driving home from Belgium at five in the morning but we just love it,” said Downey, holding a placard with the phrase “Lionesses hear us roar”. Seeing the women playing at Wembley is “a dream come true”, added O’Sullivan. “You get a lot back from supporting the women. They are much more accessible and they play with such dedication and passion – you know how much it means to them.”
Despite a bright start in which Jordan Nobbs rattled the crossbar from 25 yards after 30 seconds, England soon succumbed to the more organised Germans. It was not the result Millie Underwood had dreamed of when she took down three England flags from her ceiling to bring to the match, but the eight-year-old goalie was just pleased to see her hero, Reading Ladies’ Fran Kirby. “It was great,” she said. “I loved it”.
Her mum, Cat, added: “What we teach her is it’s not just about the result, it is about taking part, it is about being part of something. It would have been great if we had seen them win but what she saw here today was history – and that’s what matters.”
