Everton FC Ladies – Everton FC Heritage Society

Emma Wright-Cates – Blueblood

0 Comments1990-1999, 2020-2029, Everton FC Ladies, Latest, Rob Sawyer

by Rob Sawyer Emma with Everton Ladies in 1996 Amongst the former Everton Ladies players attending the March 2023 reunion to mark 25 years since the Toffees' only national women's league title so far, was Emma Wright-Cates. She jetted in from Texas to link up with her former teammates and receive an ovation from supporters when introduced on the Goodison turf before the kick-off of the women's derby. Her maiden name, Wright, gives a strong clue to her Everton credentials. Back in 2020, for the Toffee Soccer book, she told me about her life in football and her debt of…

A Night of Acclaim for Everton’s Pioneering Women

0 Comments1990-1999, 2020-2029, Articles, Everton FC Ladies, Latest, Rob Sawyer

by Rob Sawyer The Lap of Honour back in 1998 (photo: c/o Louise Ryde) Shortly before kick-off of the women's Merseyside derby on 24 March, a group of people stood in the centre circle of Goodison Park and received the acclaim of the 22,000-plus attendees. This was the culmination of intensive planning by Everton FC Heritage Society and Everton FC, to pay fitting tribute to the achievement of the Everton's women's team of 1997/98 in winning the National League title for the only time, so far, in the club’s history. The 1997/98 season was only the third in which the…

Celebrating Everton Women’s Class of ‘98

0 Comments1990-1999, Articles, Everton FC Ladies, Latest, Rob Sawyer

by Rob Sawyer Twenty-five years ago, a remarkable group of women representing Everton Football Club lifted the Women's Premier League trophy for the first and only time. Louise Ryde, ex-Doncaster Belles The history of the side goes back forty years, to when Billy Jackson and June Gordon merged their teams to form Hoylake WFC, morphing into Leasowe and, later, Leasowe Pacific. Under the latter name, the club upset the odds to win the Women's FA Cup in 1989, in a match staged at Old Trafford. Six years later, thanks to lobbying by club officials of new Everton chairman Peter Johnson,…

Goodison Park and Women’s Football

1 Comment1920-1929, 1930-1939, Articles, Everton FC Ladies, History, Latest, Rob Sawyer

December 2021 marked the centenary of the directive which flung the women’s game into the wilderness for five decades. Less than a year before this myopic edict, one of the most significant football matches in Goodison Park’s history took place – but it did not involve an Everton team. During the First World War, football matches played between women’s factory teams boosted wartime morale and raised funds for deserving causes. Goodison Park staged a charity match on 1 April 1918, contested by Aintree Munitions Ladies and North Haymarket Ladies Football Club. However, a fixture on a far grander scale took…