‘We used a size four ball’: former Lionesses recall first women’s Euros

The contrast could hardly be greater for the former England captains Gillian Coulthard and Carol Thomas between what was at their disposal in their playing days and the resources and professionalism afforded to the Lionesses today, as England prepares to host Euro 2022. Now the pair, who contested the first staging of the event in 1984, are looking forward intensely to Sarina Wiegman’s team kicking off the tournament against Austria at Old Trafford on 6 July.

Thomas, 67, took to the game before the FA ban on women’s football was lifted in 1970, while Coulthard, 58, began playing in 1976 when female participation was permitted, though not championed. Thomas says: “When I started playing, I was only an 11-year-old local footballer in Hull, I didn’t realise there was a ban or anything. I just played for the fun of the game and we played wherever we could find goalposts.”

She was called up to the England squad in 1974, the year she turned 19, while Coulthard was brought into the fold at 13 in 1976 and made her debut five years later. In 1984 both were competing for England in the first Euros under Uefa’s auspices, the European Competition for Women’s Football, which was denied official status as a continent-wide championship due to only 16 teams entering. Thomas, a right-back, was captain at 29 and Coulthard was a 20-year-old midfielder.

After topping a qualifying group also containing Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with a 100% record, England beat Denmark 3-1 on aggregate in a semi-final played home and away. The final against Sweden was contested on the same basis, with each side managing 1-0 home wins, but at the end of the second leg at Luton’s Kenilworth Road, England lost 4-3 on penalties. It