A woman who made the paper for getting into a boys' football team in the 1960s has spoken about watching the England women's team win Euro 22 at Wembley.
Lorraine Brazier featured in the Loughton Gazette/Guardian in 1968 and 69 after being picked as a footballer for her primary school’s boys’ team, but could not take her career to the next level due to her gender.
Now 64, Lorraine attended the Euros final at Wembley on Sunday (July 31) and said she was emotional all day as she watched the Lionesses beat Germany 2-1 in front of 87,000 supporters.
The extra-time win was the first major tournament title for the country since 1966 and set a television viewing record.
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Lorraine said: “The final was just superb, I was in tears, not just because of the win, but where we have come from.
“My sisters and some of my friends all said to me ‘if this had happened when you were playing it would have been you out there’.
“When I played in school, we didn’t know any different.
"The teacher had just put me in the boy’s team, but there was nowhere to go after that.”
Lorraine was not able to play football at secondary school but did play for a “very basic” Spurs Ladies team in the 1970s.
The West Ham fan said: “My friends always remind me of the fact I once played for Spurs, but West Ham didn’t even have a team at the time.”
Lorraine compared the support on Sunday with how she and other female footballers were called names for playing when she was young.
A comment featured in the Loughton Guardian/Gazette said: “Young Lorraine Brazier has been welcomed on merit, into a Loughton schoolboys football team.
“We hope the day isn’t too far off when the last bastion of male supremacy falls and that in the years to come Lorraine will look back with some amusement to the day when the fulfilment of a little girls desire to play football made headlines.”
As a PE teacher, Lorraine has had a further impact on football, including teaching West Ham rising star Ben Johnson.
She said many students have thanked her for making it easier for them to get into the sport than it was for her.
Ipswich Town Women's manager Joe Sheehan told Lorraine he credited his time as her student with his involvement in the women’s game.
Despite her pride in the amazing performance on Sunday, she added that there is still some way to go for the perception of women in football.
She said: “I wanted to buy a scarf at Wembley for the game, but I couldn’t find one that didn’t have the word women in it.
“You wouldn’t say England men, it was England versus Germany as far as I’m concerned.
“Now the pressure is on the men to do as well as the women in the World Cup.”
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