Hov Woman remembered playing football for England in 1972

A former England female footballer, who paved the way for the lioness, says that his team could never dream of the success of the current team and change in sports for more than 50 years.

Julia Branton played for England in 1972, became part of the first officially affiliated team to play for her country after a 50 -year ban on women’s football.

Now Julia, who lives in Hov, East Sussex says that with the success of the lioness, the game has been highlighted only half a century before seeing the game growing in England.

Julia, 73, said: “It was very different in those days.”

He said: “Around 400 people saw us, and some games were not a changing room and you will turn into your car.

“It is actually taken into the thing we never dreamed. I just loved playing football, but now they can do it as a living that is something that we would never have thought about.”

Julia, Ni Manning said she was starting to play one further at her home town Lokstoft, where the Ladies team rose, started as a team for I It’s a knockout game show.

The team came after women’s football, banned by FA in 1921, who said it was “quite unsuitable for women and should not be encouraged”, finally re -associated in 1971.

Julia later attended the trial era before being selected to England, to play as an alternative in the first game, 3–2 against Scotland in November 1972.

He won his first full cap, playing against France in April 1973.

Overall, Julia played four times for England, scored once.

Shortly thereafter, Julia moved to Brighton to get married, and Briton and Hov supporters played for clubs, brighton GPO and C&C sports – all predecessor official and how for the Brighton & How Albian women’s team.

In 2022, 50 years later from the first game, Julia re -joined her former companions when she received an official England cap from FA.

He said: “This was the first time I felt like a lioness.

“We went to training to meet some players and at the end of the training session they clapped us on the pitch. They saw us as pioneers.”

Next to the lioness looking to protect her crown of her Euro 2022, Julia says she still stays in touch with her former companions to interact in a WhatsApp group.

As the female football is growing in the professional era, it is Julia and their peers, who still remember that through her love of the game, remember to lay the foundation for the success of the lioness purely through her love of the game.