What they did next: Millwall Lionesses 1991 Women’s FA Cup winners

Spotlight on Millwall Lionesses 1991 – Women’s FA Cup winners

 

Millwall Lionesses 1991small

 

In an iconic final, Millwall Lionesses’ class of ’91 beat Doncaster Belles, the holders, 1–0 at Prenton Park to lift their first Women’s FA Cup. In the Greater London League they saw off Friends of Fulham and Arsenal to qualify for the first ever National League in 1991–92. With cult status assured, the team famously imploded and went their separate ways. Now the Women’s Football Archive opens the vault and looks back at the Lionesses squad from that memorable season.
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Match: Lowestoft 2–0 Cleveland, 1 May 1982, Loftus Road

Loftus Road 1 May 1982 – Lowestoft Ladies 2–0 Cleveland Ladies

 

Woe for Cleveland as Lowestoft’s Linda Curl and Angie Poppy put a new name on the Women’s FA Cup

 

Classic match report: Spartans dashed by Waves who secure 1982 WFA Cup

 

Embed from Getty Images

 

In May 1982 goals from Linda Curl (26) and Angela Poppy (58) gave Lowestoft their first WFA Cup, at the expense of Cleveland. The event was staged at a Football League ground for the first time, on – topically – a controversial plastic pitch at QPR’s Loftus Road in Shepherd’s Bush, London.
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Players: Pat Davies

Pat “Thunder” Davies

 

Davies at the 1971 Mitre Trophy final
Davies at the 1971 Mitre Trophy final

 

Born: c.1955, Netley
Position: Striker
Debut: Scotland (A) 18 November 1972
Occupation: Valuations clerk (1972)

 

Nicknamed “Thunder” for her booming shot, England’s original centre-forward was small in stature but big in goals.

 

A deadly striker whose aerial prowess belied her lack of inches, Davies burst on the scene in a flurry of goals for England and the great Southampton WFC team of the era. In pre-National League days the WFA Cup was the only show in town – Davies’s Southampton side made it their personal property with six wins from the first eight tournaments.

 

Wendy Owen (2005) described Davies simply as “a centre–forward with a clinical finish.” While Saints team mate Sue Lopez (1997) hailed 5ft Davies’s “incredible ability to jump higher than players much taller than herself and superbly head the ball once she reached it”.

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Players: Janet Bagguley

Janet Bagguley

 

Bagguley (right) with Jeannie Allott in 1972
Bagguley (right) with Jeannie Allott in 1972

 

Born: c.1955, Buxton
Position: Defensive midfield
Debut: Scotland (A) 18 November 1972
Occupation: TBC

 

Midfield enforcer Bagguley, 17, made it through the trials into Eric Worthington’s original England squad in 1972. She also played netball to a high standard.
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Player: Miss C.V. Richards

The death of Miss C.V. Richards: A tragedy felt right round the world

 


England booked their place at the 2015 Women’s World Cup this week, with a 4–0 win in Cardiff. Wales’s mad five minutes just before half-time saw them ship three ridiculous goals and turned the match into a tedious cakewalk. But events at another match in South Wales some 90 years ago had far greater import for the history of women’s football…

 
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Ann Chiejine: Nigeria’s Princess of Goalkeepers

Ann Chiejine: Groundbreaking Falcons ‘keeper

 

We’ve all heard the lazy stereotypes about African goalkeepers (“naïve” “erratic”), and female goalkeepers (“rubbish”). Ann Agumanu-Chiejine is a living, breathing repudiation of both. One of Africa’s finest ever goalkeepers, the Nigerian’s athleticism and breathtaking acrobatic ability earned her five consecutive African Nations Cups with the Super Falcons, as well as a place at three World Cups and one Olympic Games. Here is her story…

 
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Anne O’Brien: Irish soccer legend

Anne O’Brien: Irish soccer star who carved out a glittering career on mainland Europe

 

The girl from Dublin who dreamed big – overcoming incredible obstacles to make her mark in international soccer. In the course of a long and successful career she won six Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia winner’s medals and etched her name into women’s football folklore.

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1997: The first UEFA under–18 tournament

England’s first taste of women’s football at youth team level

 

England’s under-19 team have been in Norway this past week, in UEFA Championship action, while next week the under-20s take centre stage at their World Cup in Canada.

 

Now a regular part of the football calendar, it is only in recent years that youth tournaments for women’s national teams came into being.

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