England Women host Netherlands nearly 50 years after first welcome | OneFootball

Image: Rod Prescott

Friday will see the 22nd meeting between England and the Netherlands and comes in the build up to next month’s Women’s EURO Finals.

Seven of the previous meeting of the two nations have been hosted by England and there have been programmes printed for every Lionesses’ home game. Pictured below are the front covers from the first and last fixtures’ publications.

England Women’s very first home games versus the Netherlands was played on Friday 9 November 1973 at Elm Park, Reading FC – who then played in Division Four.

England recorded a 1-0 win courtesy of a Margaret (Paddy) McGroarty goal. Margaret was cousin to Manchester United’s Assistant Manager Pat Crerand and she smashed a dipping, swerving free-kick into the net from 35 yards out.

The win extended England’s unbeaten record at the time to five games, in front of their highest ever home crowd of 2,015. Tommy Tranter was manager of that team and the captain was Chorley-born Sheila Parker.

The Netherlands last visited our shores for a EURO Qualifier played out at the Salford City Stadium on Sunday 17 June 2012 . Just like the very first home fixture and goal, England won the game 1-0 with a well struck free-kick from Rachel Yankey on 67 minutes.

The Dutch led the Group 6 table, so this was a superb result and was achieved in front of an excellent attendance of 5,505.

It meant that the 2013 EURO Finals in Sweden were now on the horizon for manager Hope Powell.

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