A century after England's FA banned women's football, Sam Kerr's Chelsea and Steph Catley's Arsenal met in the FA Cup final at Wembley in a game that acknowledged the past while stepping boldly into its future.
It was a roar that seemed to echo from some other place; a place remembered only in the pages of dusty books and the stories passed down through the families of those who were there.
The famous Dick, Kerr Ladies team became a national sensation during World War 1, playing matches and raising money for charity. Photos from those games 100 years ago show stadiums heaving with spectators, some so full that thousands had to be turned away at the gates. When the ban was finally lifted in 1971, the first major event organised to mark the occasion was, fittingly, the women's FA Cup.
On Monday morning, 100 years to the day since the FA ban, almost 50,000 people once again packed into a major English stadium to do what they have always done: watch, support and enjoy women's football.They walked down Wembley's famous boulevard, now lined with women's football banners. They gasped as Fran Kirby nipped in behind a fractured Arsenal line to score Chelsea's first goal in the third minute.
It was just reward for her hat-trick of missed chances in the opening half, and a deserved spotlight for a player still bizarrely under-rated in the footballing nation she has come to dominate.The occasion was not as memorable for Kerr's countrywomen Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, and Lydia Williams, who were comprehensively outplayed by the new domestic treble-holders.
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