No need for hot-pants

I HAVE to start with a confession. I feel it is only right.

I knew nothing about women’s football before I was told I would be covering its biggest domestic showpiece at the City Ground, the FA Cup final.

The only time it had come under my radar was when FIFA president Sepp Blatter ridiculously suggested a few years ago that the players should wear tighter shorts to raise the pules of viewers – and its popularity.

Oh yeah, and I saw a bit of the World Cup in China last year when England reached the quarter-finals stage.

But that was the extent of my knowledge, if that’s the right word for ignorance.

I knew I would need to know more then, well, nothing so I set about my task.

A crash-course taught me that Arsenal are the superpower of the domestic game, having won the Premier League title ten times and the FA Cup eight times.

I learnt that cup glory for a ninth time in their history would put them in the record books.

Leeds, in complete contrast, were a young side aiming to lift the cup for the very first time in their history.

Armed with that, I expected it to be a one-sided affair. And I was right.

But it was still an absorbing, exciting and truly entertaining game to the very end – made even more so, by the crowd of 24,582 that created a festival atmosphere inside the stadium.

Critics of the women’s game have labelled it, well, rubbish to put it bluntly.

I can only suspect those same critics have never been to see a game in their lives because it was quite the opposite.

I have seen some poor FA Cup finals in my time, but this wasn’t one of them. Far from it.

Arsenal were, quite simply, outstanding. They were solid at the back and stylish in attack, with the likes of Kelly Smith and Lianne Sanderson.

And then there was Leeds keeper Carly Telford. The game’s outstanding player.

She produced a string of world-class saves to deny the Gunners in the first half, and was rightly named the Player of the Match despite conceding four goals in the second half.

There was pride, passion and great technical skill on show. And, unlike the men’s game, there was no diving.

I still know very little about the women’s game.

But I do know that it isn’t rubbish – and there is certainly no need for hot-pants.