Hopes that ground draws more than 20,000 fans 100 years after Dick, Kerr Ladies played St Helens there in front of 53,000When Willie Kirk’s Everton side step out on to the Goodison Park turf on Sunday there will be a feeling that things have come symbolically full circle. It was 100 years ago that a record that would last 99 years would be set at the ground. On Boxing Day 1920 a staggering 53,000 fans, with a further 14,000 reported to be turned away, filed through the turnstiles to watch the premier women’s team of the time, the munitions factory team Dick, Kerr Ladies, beat St Helens Ladies 4-0 and raised £3,115 (about £140,000 today) for charity.
The record for a women’s club game stood until last year, when 60,739 filled the Wanda Metropolitano for Atlético Madrid’s defeat by Barcelona.