England play Scotland today; the longest international fixture in history?? NOT!! Its the Ladies/Womens' international, a World Cup fixture being held at Nice in France, the first time Scotland has appeared in the Womens' World Cup finals.
The England team also have Argentina and Japan to get past in their group, if they wish to qualify for further fixtures in France.
Sir Philip Sidney in the 16th Century write a "Dialogue Between Two Shepherds" which happened to mention women and football. Mary Queen of Scots seemed to favour the game when she saw a mob playing football in Carlisle in 1568 and in Scotland there was considerable interest in the game, which of course was in its infancy at that time.
Helen Graham Matthews, using a pseudonym of Mrs Graham was a suffragette and lady footballer from Montrose. She formed a Scottish team called The Lady Footballer that played against England at Easter Road in Edinburgh on May 9th 1881. The inspiration for her was watching the England v Scotland match at the Oval in 1881. Matthews played in goal.
The next international match was played at Shawfield Athletic FC which the Scots won 3-0, however they played in trousers which brought much derision and a ban by the Scottish FA. Large crowds came to watch the games which often ended up in a riot!
Later Matthews (see below) formed the British Ladies Football team which included the first black female footballer, Carrie Boustead (not pictured).
Needless to say, at this time the Ladies game was banned so Matthews and Nettie Honeyball formed a team called the Lady Footballer in England. Matthews left the team in 1896 and formed her own team, Mrs Graham's XI that played a Scottish men's team at Irvine.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/dickladies-and-co.html
By 1971 Scottish Ladies were allowed use the Scottish FA facilities and were allowed to play in Football League grounds. In 1972 England Women were 0-2 down to Scotland but recovered to win 3-2. For Scotland Rose Reilly scored two and became a World Cup winner, but for Italy in 1983.
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