Last weekend saw the sudden passing of Edna Neillis one of the pioneers of women’s football.
Edna started her football career with a boys’ team as she later remembered:
“I grew up in the East End of Glasgow and I played with the Ruchazie Boys team but a lot of the time in the streets. I remember way back in the 60s playing at Queens Park for the boys’ side against another boys’ team and we were on a black ash pitch, I’ll never forget that pitch, it was black, black, black.”
She would soon move on to the women’s side of the McFarline Langs factory and training at a more congenial playing surface at the Westthorn recreation ground off London Road.
“We then became Westhorn United and trained behind Barrowfield which was Celtic’s training ground in they days, we also played against Celtic Boys Club there a couple of times. Once I spoke to Jock Stein, he said if I was a boy he would sign me but everyone knew I was Rangers daft, but it didn’t stop him giving me a lift home one day.”
With Westthorn United Edna won the regional final of the Butlins Cup organised by of all people, Hughie Green. This meant a trip to the grand final in London as well as an appearance on Opportunity Knocks. Officially the first women’s match to take place at Hampden was a 2012 Olympic group tie between USA and France; unofficially it was Edna’s Westthorn taking on Stewarton Thistle in an exhibition match as part of a Speedway event in 1971.
She would later win the Scottish Cup and the inaugural Scottish League in 1973 and was capped in the early Scotland squads. In the first official international in 1972 between Scotland and England, she set up the opening goal for Mary Carr. Edna also made an appearance in the final of the 1973 Mitre Cup, a forerunner to today’s Woman’s FA Cup and later that year the Westthorn side along with a Scotland select would play demonstration games in North Africa. At the age of 21, Edna decided she would like to try playing abroad and so in the spring of 1974 she headed off with team mate Rose Reilly.
Rose Reilly, Edna Neillis and Elsie Cook at the First Ladies opening June 19th 2012
‘Paddy McGroaty had been playing for Southampton and she wanted us to go down there but we wanted to play professionally and we had heard of clubs in Europe. Elsie (Cook) typed up some stuff for us a CV and some other things and also contacted the press to try and get them interested.’
First stop was the French side Stade de Rheims before moving on to AC Milan. Together they won the 1975 Serie A and in the final league match against Lubiam Lazio played on October 26th 1975, Edna bagged two goals and Rose Reilly getting the other in the 3-0 win. They would also win the Italian Cup in 1975 and 1976. Edna and Rose paved the way for a whole batch of players from Scotland to play in the Italian league; Anne McCallum, Maria Blagojevic, Maggie Wilson, Mary Carr, June Hunter and Mary Strain all turned out in the Italian leagues during the late 1970s and early 80s.
By then Edna had moved onto a new club, AFC Gorgonzola, where she would be reunited with a former Westthorn team mate June Hunter. For the 1980 season they would push rivals SS Lazio of Rome all the way to a play off. They were to lose out in that match but by consolation Gorgonzola took the Italian Cup beating Alaska Gelati Lecce 1-0. As a result of deal between Steering Piacenza and Gorgonzola’s Livio Bolis, many of the Gorgonzola’s squad including Edna Neillis and June Hunter moved to Piacenza for a couple of seasons, making a third place league finish in 1983. Edna moved on to play for Foggia and finally hung up her boots in 1990, her last game being against a team from Lecce.
Edna returned to Scotland the same year she retired but in the last few years she suffered from illness but still remained in touch with the game however, and attended the 2013 Scottish Cup final to see how the game had progressed. In the past few years her achievements were recognised in a series of projects including the BBC Alba documentary ‘Honeyballers.’ Edna was a pioneer of the game, not just in Scotland but overseas and has helped pave the way for the success the game currently enjoys.
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
