England women's long, historic journey to meet Germany at Wembley Attempt to trace the history of women's football and you will frequently come unstuck. There are as many questions as answers, precious snippets buried away in archives, forgotten and dusty, still waiting to be uncovered. That so much of the past is missing is, of course, symptomatic of archaic attitudes surrounding the development of the women's game. On Sunday afternoon England play Germany at Wembley in front of 55,000 people, an indication that the game is more accepted than ever. But why do we remain so dismissive, so ignorant, of its past? As Gillian Coulthard, one of the stars of the 1980s women's football scene and England's first female player to win more than 100 caps, put it: "Without history you don't have today, do you?" In many cases that history is still being discovered. Until recently the first ever recorded women's football match was thought to be North v South, in 1895, but that has now been preceded by Scotland v England, 14 years earlier. More than 1,000 people watched that first game at Easter Road in Edinburgh, part of a series of matches that took place the same year, which cannot be granted official international status as it is believed that the women occasionally swapped sides. A second game, just a week later in Glasgow, was interrupted by pitch invaders attacking the female players. Listening to Jean Williams, a specialist in the history of women's sport, is fascinating. There is the incredible tale she tells of Bert Trautmann acting as official interpreter for the Manchester Corinthians team who, representing England, won a tournament held in Germany in 1957. What was the connection between Manchester City's famous goalkeeper and women's football? "That research hasn't been done yet," says Williams sadly. I forever regret not getting to speak to him before he died to ask him about it, but it was quite common years ago for women's football to have men involved. England's Stan Mortensen was close to the Dick, Kerr Ladies. It was only really in the 1970s that this horrible backlash against women's rights began. There was also Sunderland's Arthur Bridgett who, along with brother Len, sponsored and managed the Stoke Ladies FC. A rival to the more famous Dick, Kerr Ladies, both teams attracted thousands of spectators in the early 1920s before the Football Association banned women's matches being played on affiliated grounds. "There is also [World Cup founder] Jules Rimet, who seems to have officiated at two women's matches in Paris in 1920," explains Williams. As Williams's book Globalising Women's Football charts, throughout the 20th century and all over the world women's football was growing, from Japan to the United States. She describes accessing the Fifa archive to find a letter from a Nicaraguan businessman in 1955 who had visited the US and found women's football was becoming popular, "and he wanted to know what Fifa were going to do about it," she laughs. Their response was that they didn't control it and so they couldn't do anything about it. Meanwhile, in England the game lagged behind its continental neighbours, with Italy founding a professional league in the 1960s and English stars such as the striker Sue Lopez being forced to choose between remaining amateur and eligible for the England team, or earning money playing in Italy's famous stadiums. To this day Lopez says she regrets coming home. Coulthard, who played for the hugely successful Doncaster Belles at a time when women were using car headlamps to train in the evenings and repeatedly told that they should "go home and have babies," underlines why so much vital history is still missing. "It's very difficult trying to get information," says Coulthard. It really grates to say it but you talk about it being the men's game and it going on for ever and ever, but the years I played women's football they don't seem to want to recognise. I haven't got any problems with people at the FA, but that's one of my bugbears. Coulthard checks the walls of her house for a clue as to when England first played at Wembley. "Hang on," she says, "let me just have a look up the stairs." There is a shuffle, and a pause. "There it is," she says, finding one of her caps. England v Sweden. There were several international friendlies at Wembley during the 1980s and 1990s, though debate still continues over exactly what form these matches took and how many of them were full 90-minute games. The Women's Football Association (WFA) archive seems to have been taken over by the FA in 1993, but mystery remains over its exact whereabouts. "Rotting in a garden shed somewhere," says Williams. "It's probably got lost in storage," says Coulthard. If there's anything you want to know it's best to ask Linda Whitehead. The answer to almost every question regarding the history of women's football since 1980 is "You'll have to ask Linda Whitehead for that." The former secretary of the WFA, as the governing body was known before the FA took it under their remit in 1993, is something of a star of the game, despite never having touched a football. Whitehead started out in the men's game, appointed as Blackburn Rovers" commercial manager in 1974, but relocated to London when she saw the WFA job advertised. In the following years she ran the governing body almost single-handed, bolstered by a troop of willing and passionate volunteers. It was Whitehead, Coulthard recalls fondly, who ordered her first ever international cap, "black material with a crest and the WFA on it. It's proudly displayed in my house on a shelf. They'll be sought after, those first ever caps. Understandably, the relationship between old and new women's football has, at times, been strained. While most recognise the successes earned from increased resources and a structured development, Williams is not alone in describing the FA's overhauling of the women's game as "horrible, painful," and many were upset that Whitehead, such a stalwart figure in the sport, subsequently lost her job. With such a backdrop in mind, the FA has been smart to blend old traditions with the new in appointing one of England's greatest players, Marieanne Spacey, now 48, as assistant to the 32-year-old England manager Mark Sampson. Spacey is an iconic figure in the game, and brings with her the memories of how things used to be. "It says a lot that no matter how the game has gone, there's still people who have been involved for as long as they have because they keep the traditions and history of women's football alive and I think that's really important," says Spacey, who worked in a leisure centre during her playing days. Women's football, women's sport, is unique. There's that real element of the human side. You're always doing the best you can to keep gaining the recognition that you deserve. That's what sets it aside from just being a business, which is why we still love being involved in women's football. Spacey speaks proudly when she notes that even today the England women players seem to feel that mantle of responsibility towards promoting the game, making things better for the next generation. If you think, it's only really been a few years since they themselves have been able to make a living from the game. Before Sunday's match, Spacey quietly notes how English football could learn from the way German women's football has developed. "They've got a really good mentoring scheme," referring to the Germany manager, Silvia Neid's, tutelage under the previous manager, Tina Theune. The next [national team] manager or assistant is always on the path of the previous ones. I think it's fantastic how they've done that and that's what we're aspiring to. In her playing days, Spacey faced Neid, a midfielder who has since steered the national side to one World Cup title and two European Championship trophies. Spacey says she recognises Neid's trademark style in the way that Germany play today. She was a craftsman in midfield, she hardly gave the ball away. There's parts of Silvia's personality in Germany's play now. Spacey smiles. Germany are a fantastic football nation - they seem to get it right all the time. They play to win, they don't see anything other than winning. They've moved with the times, they've always been the team to beat. At Wembley on Sunday, spectators will be hoping to see that gap close just a little, as England attempt to play catch up with their biggest footballing rival.