Football: Where it all began.

The Early Years: From starting to play in school to captaining the girls team and playing for the boys.

We will start with the embarassing photos of me as a youngster...

I started playing football properly (as in more than just a kick-a-bout with friends at play time) when I was about 6 years old. My primary school had recently started a girls football team and suddenly I found myself a part of it. I had never really shown a real interest in football until then, I didn't come from a family who followed a team or watched it on TV so the only football I really knew was having fun in the school yard - but this was soon to change.

The photo on the left was my first ever competitive game, I still to this day have no idea why my school, whos colours were blue and white had a bright, banana yellow football kit! So here I was, the smallest and youngest girl on the team (well on the pitch actually) in a yellow dress with my new astro trainers, no real clue what I was doing or what position I was meant to be playing in but I was scoring goals. From this day, I never looked back, never missed a training session or game and barely ever didn't have a ball at my feet.

Football At St John's

I can't thank this school and my teachers (coaches) there enough for getting me into football, helping me develop and challenging me to be the best I could be. They saw something in me that nobody else did, they believed in me any I can honestly say that without them I wouldn't have the love for the game that I do or be the player that I am today.

Retirement At Age 11

Finishing Primary School was not only the end of the first major chapter of my life but also the end of football for me for a few years. The images on the right are from a summer tournament which unknown to me would be the last competitive football I played for a number of years, but that a way to go out!

My mother (who amongst all her flaws was unquestionably my biggest supporter, never once missing watching me play, always standing at the side of the pitch in all weathers and never lerning not to turn up to games on the 3G in wellies for me and my friends to fill with rubber chippings) entered me and my best friend Alice into a summer tournament the local Police force was running. We turned up and much to our supprise, two other lads from school were there and their friend they played with out of school. We came together to form a team (the only one with girls in) and won every game of the day, including the final and won the tournament. It was the highlight of the summer and a fabulous way to finish my time playing with my team mates before heading to a different secondary school.

This really marked the end of football for me for a number of years. I had been scouted by a few local academies but the commitment was too much (according to mother much to my annoyance) when I was heeading to secondary school and she said I needed to focus on my academic studies. I went to Shrewsbury High School and when I started there it was a pretty traditional all-girls school so football wasn't offered as it wasn't deemed a 'girls sport' at the time. I never played for a team outside of school as I was nearing the age I couldn't play as a mixed team with the boys and there were no girls teams local to me. This combination meant no football other than weekends down the local park; but it certainly wasn't the end.

Next Time: Football IS a Girl's Sport.