The FA banned women from playing footbal So we started our own club & went abroad

IN 1949, ladies' football had been outlawed by the FA for almost 30 years. But this did not deter the Manchester Corinthians.

- AMANDA KILLELEA

 

The defiant sportswomen went from a muddy Fog Lane Park to the global stage beating the likes of Juventus and Germany.

Now, 75 years on, the women are telling their story for the first time, to raise funds for a film commemorating their achievements.

"They didn't want women to play football it wasn't ladylike," recalls right-back Jan Lyons, 70.

"Well, I had one word for that... b*****ks!' Football was everything to me. I couldn't wait to kick a football whatever place or time."

Goalie Anne Grimes, 86, says: "We never seemed to get beaten. But the FA thought women were still stood at the kitchen sink and washing men's underpants!"

The Corinthian Ladies Football Club was launched by Bolton Wanderers scout Percy Ashley, whose daughter Doris, born profoundly deaf and with a cleft palate, was a brilliant footballer.

But the women's game was so frowned upon, players had to buy boots from catalogues or pretend they were for their brothers.

Their training ground had no running water, so post-match baths were taken in a duck pond.

Still, Percy trained his team of schoolgirls and office clerks from Oldham, Stockport and Newton Heath to become an elite force beating any club they encountered and winning over 50 trophies.

Anne, from Droylsden, joined the team in 1956, aged 17, after seeing an advert in the evening paper. She says: "I had a twin brother and I used to play football with him and his pals.

"I saw this advert looking for girls to join a team to go and play football abroad.

"I'd only ever been to Blackpool or Southport before, so I thought this sounded fantastic. My father took me and my schoolfriend on the bus for trials and we got in."

Because they were banned from playing on UK football league grounds, Percy arranged matches for his girls across Europe and South America.