Quite unsuitable for females: When Leicester City won at Everton
As both Leicester City men’s and women’s teams prepare for a double header away at Everton this weekend, it feels only right to start the latest edition of our historical away days series with a landmark women’s game at Goodison Park.
In December 1920, Goodison Park hosted three matches in three days over the festive period.
On Christmas Day, Everton’s men’s side lost 4-2 to Arsenal.
On Boxing Day, Everton Reserves played Southport.
And on 27th December, a charity match was held between the famous Dick, Kerr Ladies side and St Helen’s Ladies.
It was a hotly-anticipated occasion.
Earlier in the week, the Birkenhead News published the expected line-up and gave its readers an insight into some of the players.
“The Dick Kerr’s team will be composed as follows: Hastie, Kell (captain), Parr, Woods, Walmsley, Hulme, Haslam, S.O. Else, Redford, Harris, and Clayton.
Miss Kell has the reputation of being able to kick a ball with the force of a man, and Miss Walmsley, the centre half is described as “the Raisbeck” of ladies’ football. Miss Haslam can show a good turn of speed on the wing, whilst Miss Redford and Miss Jennie Harris are known as the Dick Kerr’s “box o’ tricks”.
Between them they have scored no fewer than 78 goals this season. The first-named has, for a girl, tremendous kicking powers, whilst the latter is classed as the Steve Bloomer of ladies’ football. Miss Clayton is a very smart outside-left. A boys’ band will be in attendance.”
Footage of Dick, Kerr Ladies playing against a visiting team from France in the same year gives a flavour of the women’s game more than 100 years ago:
It seems likely that this footage is from the April 1920 game at Deepdale that broke the world record attendance for a women’s football match, elevating it to 25,000.
Eight months later, the charity match at Goodison more than doubled that record to 53,000. There have been many interesting articles about the landmark occasion, including this BBC coverage.
It could have been a springboard for the thriving women’s game. Instead, within 12 months, the Football Association had taken a decision which achieved quite the opposite.
In December 1921, the FA banned women’s football from FA-affiliated grounds, with these words:
Complaints having been made as to football being played by women, Council felt impelled to express the strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged.
The ban wasn’t lifted until 1971, effectively stifling and reversing the growth in popularity of women’s football.
During the 1920s, meanwhile, the men’s game saw several innovations. In 1925, a new offside law transformed goalscoring rates. In 1927, Arsenal’s home match against Sheffield United was the first to be broadcast live on BBC Radio. In 1928, Arsenal and Chelsea were the first teams to play with numbers on the back of their shirts - the same year that the Representation of the People Act gave women an equal vote in the UK.
We travel forward to 5th October 1929, five months after the first general election in which women aged between 21 and 29 were eligible to vote. At Filbert Street, Leicester City beat Liverpool 2-1. At Goodison Park, Everton and Arsenal play out a 1-1 draw just as they had in 1920 at Highbury on the same day Goodison was taken over by spectators of the women’s game.
We pick this date because of a report in that day’s Rugeley Times that gives a small insight into how the FA ban affected attitudes towards women’s football.
The headline: “Hazel Slade Ladies Provide Amusing Football”
“Twenty-two Hazel Slade ladies, whose ages ranged from 17 to 38, donned football jerseys and shorts on Friday evening and entertained about 2,000 spectators to their version of football.
Captain T.V. Peake kicked off, and then the fun began, with rumbling and tumbling, slipping and skipping, kicking and miskicking, shying and trying (to score).
Apparently the ladies had their own idea of how the game should be played, not that they left the referee out in the cold, but because they played fast and furious and each eleven seemed determined to be on the winning side.
Altogether, the game was thoroughly enjoyable, and it is to be hoped that there will be more matches of a similar nature.”
The following month, Leicester travelled to Goodison Park for the sixth time. The previous two visits had seen Everton win 7-1 and 3-1, with the famous Dixie Dean scoring a hat-trick in the former and once in the latter.
This time, Dean was sitting the stands nursing an injured foot and the Liverpool Echo’s reporter quoted him as saying “I would dearly love to playing, but I don’t think I will be long now.”
It didn’t initially appear to matter, as Everton roared into a two-goal lead. But as a mist settled over the ground and the light became poor, Leicester went in at the break with a two-goal lead of their own having scored four times to shock Goodison.
Walter Langford, who appeared just 15 times for Leicester, was credited with both goals, although the second was reported to be pushed out by the Everton goalkeeper Arthur Davies only for left-back John O’Donnell to put it into his own net.
“The City, having wiped out their arrears, started to play with a will and the Everton defence was often in a quandary as to the best way to deal with the City’s quick movements.”
Harold Lovatt added a third, Len Barry a fourth and Hugh Adcock a fifth just after half time.
The goalscorers could barely be more different in their longevity at Leicester City - Lovatt, curiously, scored nine goals in ten First Division games between 1928 and 1931 but was sold to Third Division club Notts County; Barry played 203 league games for Leicester in a spell sandwiched by playing for Nottingham clubs; Coalville-born Adcock has, for now, the third highest number of league appearances for Leicester at 434, although Jamie Vardy could surpass him this season.
At 5-2 up, Leicester appeared comfortable. In a passage that could equally apply today, the Liverpool Echo’s reporter was unimpressed with possession football at the back.
“Leicester were much too fiery for Everton, and even in front of their own goal Leicester indulged in finery. This was all very well with a three-goal lead, but for my part I would prefer safety first.”
But Leicester City have always been Leicester City, never a club to make things too easy. Two late Everton goals set up a nervy finish.
“The game ended with Leicester kicking anywhere so long as it was away from their goal, and when the final whistle went it was almost impossible to see the players.”
The report in The Daily Courier was wonderfully verbose:
“A more pulsating and exciting game I do not wish to see, and yet there was so much in it, which savoured of the tragic. Every crowd loves goals, and this gathering of 30,000 was no exception, but they also love good football, and in this respect they were not disappointed.
Leicester served up some delicious materials, with Duncan generally in the forefront when it came to scheming, and I certainly think that the spoils went to the better combination. Leicester are a fine football side who know the advantage of the ground pass. The backs were far better than the home pair, and McLaren was rocklike in goal.
Duncan was the pick of the intermediates, but Watson made his presence left with reduce defensive work. Forward, Lochhead, though not a scorer was the mastermind, and Adcock and Langford also did well. This was a game which will long be remembered. Scientific football won on the day.”
The following April, the return match at Filbert Street saw another 5-4 win for Leicester as Everton headed towards relegation for the first time in the club’s history.
They have only been relegated once since, in 1951, and narrowly avoided adding a third occurrence in 2023 when Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal on the final day sent Leicester down instead.
Of course, this has been Everton’s narrative of recent years - stuck in suspended animation above the Premier League’s relegation zone. The hope for Everton fans is that the recent takeover and the new stadium will start to see their club chug back to life. The WSL table paints a similar picture, with Everton one point and one place above Leicester heading into the clash between the two.
It had been reported that Everton Women could play the first game at Bramley Dock. That honour will now go to the men’s Under 18s side, but it may not be long before Everton’s home ground sees crowds of more than 50,000 people attending a women’s game once more.
