Nine-year-old Lyla Crowder is beaming as she watches Stockport County Ladies FC play. “Do you think that’ll be you on there one day?”, I ask her. “Yes!”, she excitedly tells me.
Lyla plays for a local grassroots team, Inter Cheadle Under 10’s. Her dad Dave had brought her to the Stockport Sports Village on Sunday to watch the ladies kick off their league campaign against Durham Cestria. “We’ve been once before, but thought we’d come down today and start watching a bit more”, Dave says. “Especially after the Euros, we went to the opening game at Old Trafford and it was good. It’s for Lyla really, we’ll try come down a bit more this year.”
The pair were two of about 40 fans on the sidelines and stands who’d turned out for the game. Stockport County play in the FA Women’s National League Division One North. Their male counterparts are playing at the same level, in League Two of the EFL, but the crowds at the Edgeley Park stadium dwarf those here.
For the first time ever this summer, this changed. Thousands and thousands of people packed into stadiums across the country to watch the Lionesses’. A record-breaking crowd turned out at Wembley to watch their sensational win against Germany. I watched the game myself in a local pub with friends. When Chloe Kelly banged that 110th minute goal in, the place erupted. And when the final whistle went, there was an outpouring of emotion and relief. England had done it this time, when we usually get so close. There was something really special about seeing the women bring it home.
But what was more important than any trophy, was that people fell in love with the women’s game. Little girls across the country were inspired. On the sidelines at the Stockport County Ladies match, club president Steve Bellis tells me the side has already seen the impact of this. “We’re already seeing a surge in numbers in young girls wanting to play. They’ve got role models and they’ve got these women to aspire to”, he says.
Grassroots player Natalia Phipps also turned out to show her support for the ladies. She plays for Rain On Me FC, a Manchester-based team for women and non-binary people. She too has seen the impact from the Euros. “So many people have come to join the club now”, she says. “If you see the representation yourself, you’re more likely to get into it.
"If you only see the men playing you’re only going to think it’s for the men. A lot of people who have joined our team are people who played in primary school, but then there’s been no football in PE for girls so they just stop and then later on they want to get back into it.”
More than 300 girls and women are part of Stockport this season. The players pay for their own membership, or use sponsorship to fund it. The ladies team is run independently to the men’s side, with the men’s side helping financially, buying kits and offering support where possible. Support from the local community is absolutely vital at SCLFC.
And a massive part of that is getting down to watch. It cost just £3 to get in on Sunday - and £1 for concessions. I played football as a kid. For years I spent Saturday or Sunday mornings running around our local school’s sports field in Grimsby, gunning for a win for our team. I know how it feels to see people standing on the sidelines, braving the cold and cheering you on. It really does mean a lot.
And these ladies at Stockport are absolutely brilliant. Talented and resilient. Today’s game finished 0-0, but there was end-to-end action until the final whistle and the ladies had plenty of chances on goal. Durham were tough opposition and Stockport defended well. Given the quality of the opposition, a one-point start to the season was great.
Steve Bellis hopes the ladies will get to play at Edgeley Park again this year, after a successful match last season. Speaking of the women’s game, he says: “It’s something that we’ve always taken seriously, I was here in the early nineties when we started out first ladies team. Now with the owner Mark Stott, he’s very keen that we have a strong relationship.
"The support obviously is practical where we can but also financial, providing kit as well. We hope to grow that and develop that further, it’s not token it’s something that we’ve always been proud of.
"We were talking about how many girls are going to be involved this year and we’re looking at 300 players in total which is fantastic. We’re looking at the likes of an academy, we’re very excited about it. We played a game at Edgeley Park last year and we’re hoping to repeat that, fixtures allowing. Everybody got behind them, it was a great atmosphere.”
Steve also hopes more and more people will turn out to ladies games this season. " There’s great facilities, it’s a good place to be. Get down here, the bar’s open. It’s a bit more pure at times [than the men's game]. Family, friendly, a very honest game. We saw that with the Euros. None of this rolling around pretending to be injured, just a very honest game. We just hope to grow the numbers and I hope we get in the top tier."
Just a few miles from the ground in Stockport, Manchester City Women play at the Academy Stadium, and just a little bit further out, the Leigh Sports Village is home to Manchester United Women. Both top-flight sides are made up of absolutely world-class players, yet I have never been.
My partner is absolutely mad on sport which (whether I wanted it to or not) has of course rubbed off on me. Football, cricket, tennis, golf - you name it, it’s constantly on our telly. Big games we’ll watch at the pub. We often watch sport live too, which for me, is a million times better. We’ve been to football games at Salford City and cricket matches at Old Trafford. We’ll go down to our local cricket club in south Manchester in the summer to watch a 20/20. If we walk through a park at the weekend and there’s a Sunday league team playing, we’ll stop to watch. But before now, we’ve never been to a local women’s game. Watching the ladies on Sunday made me wonder why, and it’s something that will definitely change.
If you’re a sport-lover, have a kid who’s mad on the beautiful game or just want to support your local community, get yourself down to a women’s game in Greater Manchester this season. Let’s keep the momentum going.
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