Foreword
Column / Opinion p.3
A guest foreword opening the 20th-anniversary souvenir issue, written by Rachel Pavlou of the FA's women's football development team, who notes she has been in post since 1998 rather than the full twenty years.…
Issue
She Kicks Special Edition
October 2016 39 articles indexed
Read She Kicks Special Edition in full
Kicking Back (Welcome)
Column / Opinion p.7
Editor Jen O'Neill's anniversary welcome, asking whether celebrating twenty years so indulgently is justified and answering that anyone involved in the women's game across two decades will know what stubborn staying power, teamwork and…
Just After Kick Off (1996-2000 retrospective)
Other p.8
The opening era section of the anniversary retrospective, covering 1996 to 2000 across the era essay and the individual year pages. It recalls a game that was invisible and parochial, when images had to…
Tara Proctor
Interview p.10
An interview with the player who appeared, alongside Liverpool's Leanne Taylor, on the first cover of On the Ball, an action shot from the 1996 Women's FA Cup final during her time with Croydon.…
Debbie Bampton MBE
Interview p.11
An interview with the holder of six FA Cup winners' medals, player-manager of Croydon's Doubles in 1996 and 2000, who played in Italy in the late 1980s, captained England at their first World Cup…
Millwall Lionesses 1997 Double
Other p.12
A team retrospective on Millwall Lionesses' 1997 Double, when the old chant No One Likes Us rang out across Upton Park on 4 May as Jim Hicks' side beat Wembley 1-0 before more than…
A Sense of Hope / A Decade of Hope
Interview p.14
A career interview with the woman appointed England head coach in 1998 at 31, the first female, first full-time, first black and youngest manager of any England side, combining a new anniversary interview by…
The Girl with the World at Her Feet (Sue Smith)
Interview p.18
An interview with the winger who, on Valentine's Day 1999, lined up in San Jose for the first FIFA Women's World Stars match, America against the Rest of the World, wearing a blue number…
FIFA Women’s World Cup 1999 / Joy Fawcett
Other p.18
A retrospective on the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup in the United States, an international women's sporting event on a scale never before attempted, from the opening 3-0 win over Denmark at Giants Stadium…
Gill Coultard: 1st to 100 Caps
Interview p.21
An interview with the Doncaster Belles and England midfielder who became the first England player to reach 100 caps and finished on 119, a record for an outfield player until Rachel Yankey passed it…
Stepping Into Europe (2001-2005 retrospective)
Other p.22
The second era section of the retrospective, covering 2001 to 2005, book-ended by European Championships. It describes slightly better coverage through newspaper columns, teletext pages and Eurosport, Arsenal as the team to beat followed…
Bend It Like Chapman (Katie Chapman)
Interview p.25
A career interview with the player who appeared on the first cover of She Kicks in June 2001, flanked by Joe Cole and Michael Carrick and about to turn 19, a cover she cringes…
Unplanned Success (Rachel Yankey)
Interview p.27
A career interview with the first woman to sign a professional contract in England, later an OBE, host of the children's programme Footy Pups and the first England player of either sex to reach…
Spacey: From Star to Starmaker
Interview p.28
A feature pairing the magazine's archive columns with an interview with the England assistant coach who was one of the first star players in the English game, an Arsenal and Fulham forward with 91…
Fleets Was Flying (Julie Fleeting)
Interview p.32
An interview built around the afternoon of 3 May 2004, when the Arsenal forward scored a hat-trick against Charlton in the driving rain at Loftus Road, having been injured playing for Scotland in a…
Foudy Farewell (Julie Foudy)
Interview p.33
An interview marking the 2004 retirement of the United States captain, who stepped down alongside Mia Hamm and Joy Fawcett after a ten-game Fan Celebration Tour across ten cities. Capped 272 times, Foudy was…
Teens Take Centre Stage (Karen Carney & Eni Aluko)
Interview p.35
A joint feature on the two teenagers who lit up Euro 2005, both of whom began under Marcus Bignot at Birmingham City, went on to play professionally in America and were by 2016 together…
Making Positive Steps (2006-2010 retrospective)
Other p.38
The third era section of the retrospective, covering 2006 to 2010, described as a happy spell of positive steps as talent from the FA's Talent Development Plan broke through and players won part-time funding…
Great White (Faye White)
Interview p.41
A career retrospective on the towering centre-half who took the England armband from Karen Walker as a 24-year-old in 2002 and kept it for a decade, assembled from several archive interviews including one by…
The A Team (Arsenal’s Quadruple 2007)
Other p.42
A team retrospective on the Arsenal squad of 2007, who won the Premier League, FA Women's Cup and League Cup and added the UEFA Women's Cup, a feat yet to be repeated. It traces…
Akers Set the Standard (Vic Akers)
Interview p.46
An interview with the most successful manager in the women's game, who moved upstairs in 2009 after 22 seasons at the club he founded in 1987, having been an Arsenal community officer so impressed…
Simply the Best (Kelly Smith)
Interview p.47
A career interview with the player the magazine rates the best England has had in twenty years, who retired from international football in February 2015 aged 36 with 117 caps and 46 goals. Smith…
Leeds Win at Last (Leeds Carnegie)
Other p.51
A team retrospective on Leeds Carnegie's League Cup win in February 2010, on a freezing pitch at Rochdale's Spotland, turning a run of runners-up medals against Arsenal into winners' ones with a 3-1 victory…
2011-2016 retrospective
Other p.52
The final era section of the retrospective, covering 2011 to 2016, opening with the arrival of the WSL and the levelling of the playing field. The year pages log Japan's fairytale World Cup win…
Great Scotts! (Jill Scott & Alex Scott)
Interview p.54
A joint feature on the two England players named in the FIFA All-Star team at the 2011 World Cup in Germany. Jill Scott calls that selection probably her biggest achievement to this day, recalls…
Super Steph (Steph Houghton)
Interview p.57
An interview with the defender whose goal against Brazil for Team GB before a record Wembley crowd turned her into a household name. Houghton describes London 2012 as a whirlwind that changed her life,…
Stoney Stays True to Her Roots (Casey Stoney)
Interview p.59
A profile of the centre-back chosen by Hope Powell to captain Team GB at London 2012, drawing on interviews across her career. It traces belief growing as Team GB beat New Zealand and Cameroon…
Unsung Unitt (Rachel Unitt)
Interview p.60
An interview marking 31 March 2012, when the Walsall-born former Fulham professional and Everton defender joined the hundred-cap club against Croatia, an occasion made prouder by also being made captain. Unitt says she wanted…
15 Years Apart (Becky Easton)
Interview p.62
An interview with the defender who won the FA WSL title with Liverpool in 2013, fifteen years after her previous league champion's medal with Everton, and milked it as much as possible. The lifelong…
Making His Mark (Mark Sampson)
Interview p.63
A compilation of the magazine's interviews with the head coach who succeeded Hope Powell, spanning his time at Bristol Academy, his arrival at England and the 2015 World Cup bronze. From February 2013 he…
So Fara So Good (Fara Williams)
Interview p.65
An interview with the midfielder who in August 2014 became the most capped footballer England has had, of either sex, having debuted at 17 against Portugal in 2001 and passed Rachel Yankey's 129 against…
The Double Blues (Chelsea 2015)
Other p.66
A retrospective on Chelsea's 2015 Double, built around Emma Hayes. It records that more than 30,000 marched along Wembley Way on 1 August 2015 for the first Women's FA Cup final at the stadium,…
#Lionesses: Inspiring a Nation (WWC 2015)
Other p.68
A retrospective on England's 2015 World Cup in Canada, told largely through the players' own words and images as first published in the magazine's tournament issue. Mark Sampson's squad set out to inspire a…
Bye Bye Browny (Rachel Brown-Finnis)
Interview p.70
An interview with the England and Everton goalkeeper who retired after two decades at the top level with 82 caps, and who by 2016 had a media career and a baby daughter. Brown-Finnis names…
Dawn of a New Age of Fitness (Dawn Scott)
Interview p.71
An interview with the sports science specialist who supported England's women from 2001 and has been performance director of the United States national team since 2010. Scott recalls that when the FA employed her…
Little Wonder (Kim Little)
Interview p.73
A compilation of the magazine's interviews with the Scotland midfielder, the 2016 BBC Women's Footballer of the Year, drawn from archive print and Twitter question-and-answer sessions. From 2007, while still with Hibernian, she names…
Manchester Memories (Manchester City)
Other p.74
A team retrospective on Manchester City's 2016, the year the club's vision started to deliver, with crowds pushing 5,000 at the Academy Stadium and both the WSL title and the Continental Cup won. It…
Ten in a Row (Glasgow City)
Other p.75
A team retrospective marking 23 October 2016, when Glasgow City completed ten successive Scottish Women's Premier League titles, told through a question-and-answer with co-founder Laura Montgomery, a centre-back for the club for eleven years…
Twenty Players for Twenty Years (SK20 Top 20)
Other p.76
The magazine's ranked list of the twenty best players in the United Kingdom across its twenty years, compiled by Tony Leighton and the anniversary editorial team, who explain the criteria: whether a player played…