This feature appeared in the Prescot Cables v Ashton United Digital Matchday programme on 25th January 2025. It was part of a longer article which linked Sylvia's story to that of the Manchester Corinthians - the pioneering Women's football team.
As a young girl, growing up in Prescot, all Sylvia Gore wanted to do was to play football,
encouraged by her Dad, Jackie and Uncle Sid, who both played for Prescot BICC and Prescot Cables. Sylvia would go to watch matches at Hope Street, and would usually
been seen on the pitch at half-time, kicking balls into the goals.
However. as she was not allowed to play in the boy’s teams - inside or outside school -
there was no outlet, locally, for her to play her sport. As far back as 1921, the FA had
imposed a ban on women’s teams using FA affilliated grounds - a ban which wasn’t lifted
until 1970 - which meant it was difficult to even find a team to be part of.
At the age of 12, she joined the Manchester Corinthians - the pioneering Women’s
team - meaning she spent her teenage years taking two buses to travel over to
Manchester for matches, usually accompanied on the journey by her Mum or Dad.
The FA’s ban on women’s football, meant that the Corinthians were unable to play on
official grounds, so when she was given the opportunity to take part in a charity tour to
Italy with Corinthians, she readily resigned from her mundane office job, so that she
could travel the world and play football on proper pitches, in front of tens of thousands
of fans as far afield as South America.
In 1967, Sylvia moved to Fodens - the ladies team of the lorry works in Sandbach, Cheshire - helping them to become British Champions and win the 1974 Women’s FA Cup, in a 2-1 victory over the hot-favourites, Southampton. In one memorable day in November 1974, Fodens defeated ERF Ladies, 20 - 1, in the morning and Ashton Ladies, 18 - 0 the same afternoon!
Sylvia would often be seen training on Browns Field in Prescot, and on Wednesday evening joined in the training with the men at Prescot Celtic. Her incredible goal-scoring ability - she netted 134 times during the 1971-72 season, including 13 in a 35 - 0 drubbing of Buxton Ladies - earned her the title the ‘Denis Law of Women’s Football.’
In 1972, she was one of three Fodens players selected for the first ever Engalnd Womens International side, and made history by becoming the first female to score for an official England team in a 3-2 victory over Scotland at Greenock. In all, she won five caps for England.
After Fodens, Sylvia played for Prestatyn and St Helens (as player-manager), before she retired from playing at the age of 35. She established the Prescot Ladies side, and managed the Wales women’s national football team, from 1979 to 1989. In 1989, Sylvia’s Wales team met the England u21’s on the artificial surface at the Prescot BICC ground.
She was a long-standing member of The FA Women’s Committee and became the first female director at the Liverpool County FA. Sylvia also worked as a football development officer for Knowsley Council. In the early 1990’s She was instrumental in forming the Ladies side at Knowsley United, after more than 550 women and girls turned up for the initial trials! In 1994, Knowsley United reached the final of the Womens FA Cup and later that year became part of Liverpool FC, as Liverpool Ladies Football Club. They reached the final of the FA Cup, again, in 1995.
In 2000, she was made an MBE in recognition of her pioneering role in the sport, and in 2014 she was inducted to the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame. Sylvia Gore died at the age of 71 in September 2016.
However, her name lives on with the Sylvia Gore Cup - an annual football tournament for year 5 and 6 girls at Knowsley schools.
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