In their History of Women's Football the Football Association (FA) lists a 1920 fixture between an English club side and a visiting French team as the first international women’s match. It is hard to be sure exactly why the 1917 Boxing Day match has been overlooked. An FA spokesperson said it may be because it was not recognised by an official governing body. This is likely as during the First World War the women’s game grew organically from groups of women working together in places like munitions factories. The 1917 Boxing Day match was also not part of a league or tournament but an exhibition match which was the finale of a three-day programme of events.

20,000 spectators

Nevertheless it was the highest level women’s match to date. Patrick Brennan, author of The Munitionettes, said “matches prior to the 1917 Boxing Day game were played between teams in the same general locality”. Mr Brennan has unearthed newspapers from the time which describe the match as “international” and report that it attracted 20,000 spectators. The Lord Mayor of Belfast kicked off the match which, as was common for the time, was held in aid of war charities. "Great excitement was first raised when the Irish front rank came along in great style and narrowly failed to score", said The Belfast Telegraph.

The match was played at Grosvenor Park in Belfast, which was home to the Distillery football team. Now called Lisburn Distillery Football Club, its secretary Colin Hopkins said the two women’s teams that they hosted in 1917 were named the North of Ireland Ladies and the Tyneside Ladies. “There was no Northern Ireland then, it was all one country so the name of the Irish team suggests that the players were all from Belfast and surrounding districts”, he said.