The WFA tournament followed the rescindment of the English Football Association's 1921 ban on women's teams' use of FA member clubs' pitches. However, the English Football League partially continued this ban for more than a decade after 1970.[4][7]
Prior developments
After the 1921 ban, national women's football competitions had been attempted by organisations including the English Ladies Football Association.
From 1967 until 1972, a large annual summer tournament was held in Deal, Kent with women's clubs from throughout Great Britain, playing short-form matches. The Deal International Tournament[8] comprised 52 clubs in 1969, including some from Czechoslovakia and Austria.[9] This was a catalyst in the formation of the Ladies Football Association of Great Britain[10][11] in November 1969 by forty-four clubs,[12] with its first AGM on 6 June 1970.[13] It was shortly renamed the Women's Football Association (WFA).[14] One of the Association's founder members was a club from the Republic of Ireland, Dundalk.[15]
Women's football had been treated in hostile terms by the FA, which forbade women's teams to play at its member club grounds in England from 1921[16] until the early 1970s. The FA voted to revoke the ban in January 1970,[17][18][7][19] but the men's Football League did not take similar action,[7] and did not permit its clubs to host the first WFA Cup Finals. A blanket ban lasted for a further three years, according to the WFA's Patricia Gregory:
The Football League (FL, now EFL) did not lift their objections to our using their grounds until we played an International match against The Netherlands in November 1973 (a game played at Reading FC [Elm Park]).[20]
In 1971, and in the next ten competitions, the WFA Cup Finals were not allowed to be held at Football League grounds, according to the History of the Women's Football Association, based on British Library records: "As the sport grew the WFA was reliant upon the generosity of smaller clubs".[4] The first women's Final held at a League ground was the 1982 Final at Loftus Road.[6]
In November 1970, the County FA Secretaries' Association conference voted to reject, by 31 to 13, the Birmingham FA's proposal to allow women's clubs to affiliate to county FAs.[21]
Several regional leagues were formed around this time, including the Heart of England Ladies' Football League,[21] Midland Ladies Football League,[22] Torbay Women's League,[23] Home Counties Women's Football League,[24] Kent Women's League,[25] and Merseyside and Wirral Ladies' Football League[26][27]
The first news report on team entries to the Cup was in August 1970.[28] Mitre's sponsorship of the competition continued from 1970[5][29] until 1976;[4] the company also provided the first winners' trophy, which was used until 1979.[4]
The 1970–71 Cup was reportedly divided into eight area groups.[1] The eight zonal winners qualified to the quarter-finals, held in Watford.[30]
A first-round match in Scotland was Aberdeen Prima Donnas v Stewarton Thistle (of Kilmarnock), on 29 November 1970 at the Aberdeen Lads' Club Fields in Woodside, Aberdeen.[5] The teams would meet again in the Scottish Women's Cup Final in 1971.
In the earliest reported fixture in the Cup, on 1 November, Leicester City Supporters L.F.C. were drawn at home to The Wandering Angels (Lichfield),[1] and in December Amersham Angels ("who were given a bye in the preliminary round") beat Luton Ladies, 5–3.[29]
At this time, the Association was evidently open to all Irish and Welsh women's football clubs,[10] though how many competed in the Cup is unclear. The successful Welsh women's team Prestatyn[27] travelled to Ireland to play Dundalk in an "international" friendly match in April 1971,[31] which ended in a 4–2 away win,[32] and Dundalk's Kevin Gaynor was on the WFA Executive.[33] A representative Northern Ireland team was discussed with the WFA in June 1971;[34] eventually, the WFA came to be solely a governing body for England.[10] The Scottish Women's Football Association was founded in 1972.
Final rounds
One of the eight zonal final matches in February was won by Nuneaton Wanderers (Warwickshire) 6–3 against Bantams Ladies (Coventry), at the Memorial Park;[30] another zonal winner was EMGALS (from Leicester, representing the East Midlands Gas Board, EMGAS), who won 5–3 at Hull.[30] Another zonal final match was between Chiltern Valley and Amersham Angels.[35]
The remaining Scottish club, Stewarton Thistle, played Manchester Corinthians L.F.C. in their zonal final. Thistle's key player in their win was Susan Ferries, recounted in a 2016 article: "Susan was the star of an early round 5-2 defeat of the Manchester Corinthians and a [semi-final] 9-2 thumping of Nuneaton Wanderers, being described in the press as the Bobby Lennox of the female football world."[36]
In the quarter-finals, Nuneaton Wanderers beat Kays Ladies (Worcester) on 25 April at Watford.[35][37] EMGALS, Southampton and Stewarton also progressed from their quarter-finals.[37]
The semi-final winners were Stewarton Thistle (9–2 against the injury-hit Wanderers[37]) and Southampton (11–0 versus EMGALS[37]).
The final matches were held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, earlier the site of twenty men's FA Cup Finals in the 19th and 20th centuries. As in the FA Cup at the time, a third-place playoff was held – Nuneaton Wanderers beat EMGALS on penalties after a 3–3 draw.[38] Soon after, Wanderers won a 10-team international tournament in Holland in June 1971.[39]
Southampton player Sue Lopez reported that the WFA subsequently fined the winners, a league select team, for "misrepresentation as a league club".[40] Southampton were "fined £25 at a WFA tribunal".[36] Stewarton had considered withdrawing from the final over the issue, however Southampton were allowed to keep the trophy and went on to win eight WFA Cups.[41]
^ abcd"And on the following Sunday [1 November] the Lichfield girls visit Leicester City Supporters L.F.C. in the All British Ladies' F.A. Cup." "PALACE". Lichfield Mercury. 23 October 1970. p. 20. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^ abcde"The WFA Cup". History of the Women's Football Association. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^ abc"THE PRIMA DONNAS, the ladies’ football team from TILLYDRONE COMMUNITY CENTRE, [...] against Stewarton Ladies (Kilmarnock) in the first round Mitre Challenge Trophy [...] tomorrow at 2 p.m." "Prima Donnas". Aberdeen Evening Express. 28 November 1970. p. 17. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^ abc"THE Football Association have given women's football teams permission to play on grounds of affiliated clubs, including Football League grounds. But the League have still to Agree to women's teams playing an any of their 92 grounds" [sic] "Clubs to keep girls waiting". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 20 January 1970. p. 37. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^"[Teams] will be eligible to compete in the Womens Football Association cup competition the female F.A. [Cup] and have also been given five other cups for which they can compete." "WOMEN SET FOR KICK-OFF [THE Heart of England Ladies' Football League]". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 27 August 1970. p. 25. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^ ab"Amersham Angels battled their way into the second round of the Women's Football Association Mitre Cup, at Hervines Park, beating Luton Ladies by two goals. [...]" "Amersham Angels". Buckinghamshire Examiner. 25 December 1970. p. 7. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^ abc"Ladies Cup win". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 16 January 1971. p. 13. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^"LADIES SOCCER". Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal. 2 April 1971. p. 7. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^"DUNDALK LADIES BEATEN". Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal. 16 April 1971. p. 12. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^"Dundalk's Kevin Gaynor was again elected to the Executive of the Women's Football Association. a body that is now officially recognised by [the] English and Irish F.As" "LADIES' SOCCER". Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal. 18 June 1971. p. 12. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^"NI to". Belfast Telegraph. 19 June 1971. p. 14. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^ ab"Emgals land title". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 25 February 1971. p. 27. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
