A Lioness legacy: Girls in West Berkshire are chasing their goals with Thatcham Tornadoes and Thatcham & Newbury Town Ladies & Girls
“The kids are alright” were the words of Lionesses captain Leah Williamson after leading our girls to victory at the UEFA Women’s Euros last year.
A Euros final, at Wembley, against Germany. It was a fairy-tale fixture.
For me, Chloe Kelly’s winning goal will live on as one of the defining moments in women’s football, in the UK, along with her rendition of the iconic Brandi Chastain celebration.
But, it hasn’t been an easy journey.
In December 1921, the FA banned women’s football in the UK leading to the formation of the Women’s FA in 1969. It wasn’t until 1971 that the original ban was lifted and women were back on the pitch.
Despite being 50 years behind their male counterparts, the Lionesses put the women’s game back on the map when they lifted their first major international trophy in front of a record crowd of nearly 90,000 spectators.
Viewing figures for the women’s game have since been on the up and record crowds keep pouring into the big stadiums with more than 77,000 turning out to see Chelsea take on Manchester United for the Women’s FA Cup Final at Wembley.
Come rain or shine, Tornadoes fill The Moors playing fields in Thatcham as girls aged from six-year-old to 15 train to be the next big names in football.
Yellow and black striped shirts, Chloe Kelly ponytails and sheer determination fill the field and this isn’t just a kick about- these girls mean business
Like many of us, ten-year-old Tornadoes winger Abbi Harper-Hotson was left inspired after watching the Lionesses lift silverware and she didn’t waste any time with her new-found passion.
Most new football fans have started filling up the stands but Abbi was walking through the Select Car Leasing Stadium tunnel as a mascot alongside the Reading Women senior squad in the first WSL season, post-Euros.
“It was really fun,” she said.
“When we got on the pitch, I gave a fist-bump to all the players. It felt really weird because I was being watched by so many people.”
“Now my dream is to walk out at Wembley Stadium.”
Lily Berry also wasted no time getting her head in the game and has been kicking a ball around since she was two-years-old with her dad Jon.
She is now six, she’s bagged six goals and five assists this season and she has already met a Lioness.
Ella Toone stopped to sign Lily’s football at a recent Man United v Reading game at the SCL Stadium.
Lily isn’t the only Tornado lucky enough to meet a footballing legend. Lifelong Liverpool fan, 11-year-old Jessie McCurtin still reminisces about meeting John Barnes- though it wasn’t until she saw women in the stadiums and on her television screen that she felt like she had a voice in the sporting world.
She’s now a winger for the Thatcham Tornadoes U11 team with friend Amelia Quinn.
“I played football with boys for two years and I felt like I was in a shell but here I love it,” she said.
“With the boys you want to sit back and you don’t know if you should go for that tackle. You think are they better than me because they are boys? But here I can go for any tackle.
“My confidence has grown and my goal is to play for England, I need to work really hard for that but it is my dream.
Despite being friends, Amelia and Jessie support rivalling teams and take their sport very seriously. United fan Amelia said: “Jessie and I play netball together too.
“We sometimes meet each other in competitions and we say hi to each other, we will support each other but there is competition there.”
“They are not scared of anything, they get kicked and get up and carry on but if you see the boys, even the older ones, they’ll be rolling around on the floor like they have broken their leg,” said Thatcham & Newbury Town football development officer Richard Matias.
He coaches the U11s and said he enjoys shocking people with his team’s depth of talent but longs for a day where girls playing well is seen as normal.
“People always come up to us saying ooh your team are really good and I say yes they are. Were you expecting them to not be able to string two passes together?” he laughed.
“They [girls] are very tactically aware, their balls skills are a lot better than boys, they listen more.
“They almost have to prove themselves every game, all the time. But it shouldn’t be like that, football is played by everyone.”
His girls are so good, a recent win at the Berkshire County Girls U11 cup final caught the eye Lionesses defender Alex Greenwood after a match report appeared on Newbury Today and the girls were lucky enough to receive a signed shirt from her and later they met the star herself.
“They just loved it, they absolutely loved it,” he said.
“I didn’t tell them we were getting the shirt, I just showed them one day and said look what we got.
“Especially off the back of a win, they loved it, they all took turns to have the shirt for a week.”
A Women in Sport study found that 43 per cent of teenaged girls in the UK disengage with sport after leaving primary school despite enjoying physical activity at a younger age.
Puberty, peer pressure and mobile phones are some of the distractions that cause girls to opt out of football in their teens says Tornadoes U11 Lionesses coach of two years Siobhan Mcelhinney.
Last year her team were low on numbers and the club were questioning whether or not to keep it going but they’ve since found themselves growing in size – from barely scraping 7 players for a 7-a-side game to having a full 9-a-side plus subs now.
Despite seeing growth locally and receiving support from primary schools, she believes there ought to be more pathways for girls wanting to take their game further.
“Boys have got county, they have got different leagues, there’s loads of things,” she commented.
“For the girls, we are looking at maybe just trialling them at Reading Academy.
“Some of the girls here used to pay in boys teams and they were definitely getting to the age where that wasn’t enjoyable anymore because there is a different dynamic.
“Then there are things like feeling sweaty, not being able to wear your makeup, it is all things people say aren’t that important but it is important to girls.
“They have all joined here [Tornadoes] and they really, really love it and I haven’t had a big drop out.
“The girls want to play with girls.”
The FA and UEFA reported more than 416,000 opportunities to play at a grassroots level in England arose immediately after the EURO win.
The Lionesses are now limbering up to play the Women’s World Cup (WWC) in Australia, beginning on July 20.
It wasn’t just our nation that fell in love with women’s football, it was a global affair with more than 500,000 WWC tickets already sold from more than 120 countries and the opening game selling out within 45 minutes.
Growth from grassroots to global proves that the girls are here to stay and I’d like to think Williamson’s words were nothing short of the truth- the kids really are alright.
