Motherwell can create history this weekend by sealing a top-six place in the SWPL for the first time but the achievement would add to a rich heritage of women’s football in Lanarkshire.
Women’s football is experiencing exponential growth in Scotland with TV viewership up by almost 50 per cent last season.
Thousands of girls across Lanarkshire in beyond are now getting more opportunities to play the game and can dream of becoming the next star with high-profile role models leading the way.
That dream would have seemed impossible only 50 years ago when the women working in the Satchwell Sunvic Factory in Watling Street formed Motherwell AEI FC.
Motherwell AEI stormed to success in the 1970s, winning both the Scottish league and cup during the early period of revival for women’s football.
The roots of women’s football in Lanarkshire however go back almost 400 years. One of the earliest records of women playing football anywhere in Europe comes from parish records in Carstairs.
And during the First World War, when women across Lanarkshire staffed much-needed industry for the war effort, more than 15,000 supporters crammed into Fir Park to watch teams from local munitions factories play.
A subsequent ban from using SFA club facilities drove the game underground for a generation, however there are records of games being played across the country including teams from Edinburgh and West Lothian who played at Loch Park in Carluke during the 1930s.
The ban was finally lifted in the 1970s with new leagues forming and invitations coming from around the world for teams from Scotland to play in tournaments.
It wasn’t until 1998 that the SFA took responsibility for organising the first domestic leagues. It took another 20 year’s for the Scottish Women’s Premier League to be formed in 2018 with the dream of establishing Scotland’s first professional football league for women.
It was around this time that Motherwell began to support the work of Motherwell Ladies FC more closely, the team eventually becoming an integral part of the club today as Motherwell Women FC.
Winning SWPL 2 and promotion in 2018, Motherwell have maintained their top-flight status under the direction of Paul Brownlie. Today we have one of Scotland’s leading girls academies with 72 players on the books, with a clear pathway to first-team football.
In recent years with the growth of commercial income and investment from Scotland’s city clubs, more teams can now boast squads of players on full-time professional contracts.
Despite not being there yet. Motherwell have won plaudits this season for their brand of tactical and technically gifted football and currently sit in sixth place just behind the full-time teams, six points ahead of Partick Thistle with two games to play.
A point against Aberdeen on Sunday at K-Park would seal that historic top-six finish and we are inviting Well Society members and other fans to join us.
An event will take place from 1pm at the Centenary Suite at Fir Park where we will talk about the growing popularity of women’s football and free coach travel is available to K-Park from 3pm.
You can register for free transport and buy tickets for the game (under-11s go free) using the events page on this website.