Wallsend Lioness finally gets her England cap - 40 years after playing for her country
Report by Helen Carnell
A retired PE teacher from North Tyneside is finally getting her England cap - more than 40 years after playing for England.
The FA has announced nearly 100 Lionesses will have their caps granted retrospectively.
Former England football international Christine Hutchinson, from Wallsend, is just one of the former Lionesses celebrating that she will finally get official recognition for her achievement.
The retired PE teacher played for her country from 1977 to 1981 but was never awarded a cap.
Ms Hutchinson played her best football on the biggest stage but has only a battered couple of scrapbooks to show for it.
Women players making their international debut in the 70s and 80s received a home-sewn cap for their efforts. But 45 years after Ms Hutchinson donned her first England top to play Switzerland, the FA has announced she will finally get a real one.
Ms Hutchinson said: "We had to do everything ourselves ... very little help from anybody."
"I'm over the moon for the FA to say well done."
A spokesperson for the FA said: “We're pleased to able to give recognition for the work the women have done towards making football history."
The nation celebrated England's prowess in the women's game in this summer's Euros - showing just how times have changed.
Ms Hutchinson said: "To us we look at the Lionesses and think they've got everything, everything. But we enjoyed it just as much as they do today. I used to play with the boys, and get jealous when they used to go off for trials - the men thinking it was a joke, women can't play football - but we just loved the game."
This October Ms Hutchinson will finally make her Wembley debut - to watch the England-US women's game. A halftime ceremony will honour her in front of 50,000 people.
Her actual cap will come by post.
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