Hope, admiration and ambition as Stockport County Ladies FC kick off the season

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