Women's football has come a long way in the past few years.
Not only is the FA Cup Final screened on national TV, but slowly people are starting to show up to watch the games. Perhaps the 1,500 at the Memorial Stadium went out of curiosity, though most will have gone home at least satisfied with the quality, if not the result. England's ladies lined up against their Russian counterparts, who they had previously drawn two games against. Many years of watching the men's game under my belt, I was quite curious as to how the women would fare. The general theory is that the game is slower and less physical - something which pans out when you're watching. But that takes nothing at all away from the game. The majority of the skill is there, even if some tired legs towards the end of the game was produced a few loose balls. Generally the crowd was very accepting of the game as well, something which I had been worried about. You only have to get one idiot in the crowd shouting abuse to ruin things. Just to remind us we were watching the Three Lions, chants of "En-ger-land" rang around the Memorial Stadium every so often. Even in true footballing style, England 'keeper Leanne Hall geed up the crowd when the team went one up. The first goal was something that would not have disgraced the men's game - an overhead hooked goal from Fara Williams. The shame of it all was that Russia got back into the game, and delivered the suckerpunch in injury time. The breakaway Russian goal was classic counter-attacking football too - one of those you could see coming as England pushed forward. So now both Bristol City and Bristol Rovers are in the top flight of the women's game, is it worth showing up to watch? Well, when was the last time you saw an England game - or any game, for that matter - for just £3? The game is a little slower, but no less committed or passionate. I have no doubt there are a few of the 22 on the pitch who perhaps one day wouldn't disgrace a Coca-Cola league club. And, of course, there is the little matter of the derby matches between City and Rovers ... One final note, it was a shame that we didn't get sight of City's signing Rachel McArthur on the pitch. Surely if part of the point of the game was to inspire some of the girls from local schools, having a local hero on the pitch would have helped. It was a friendly and surely would have done no harm. | 
