LIONESS LUCY FILLS US ALL IN PRIDE AND JOY

THE town of Alnwick, perched high on Northumberland’s wild coastline will come to a standstill this morning as one of their own attempts to help the Lionesses make history in Sydney.

- Richard Edwards

Watching on from the comfort of his front room will be Ray Smith, the coach who took a giant leap of faith when a young Lucy Bronze turned up at training and became the first girl to play for youth football for the Northern Alliance League side.

“I had picked my squad when I got a phone call from her mother,” Smith told The NLP. “She told me that one of her family wanted to sign up for us. I said we still had a couple of places left.

“Then she said ‘she’s a girl’. Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of Alnwick Town FC. At the time, no other girl had ever played for us.”

Times have clearly changed since, but back then Smith’s immediate concerns were of the young Bronze getting ‘kicked off the park’ in a part of the world where no quarter is asked and no quarter is given.

He needn’t have worried.