SPOTLIGHT ON : SHREWSBURY TOWN SUPPORTER - LIZZIE EVANS

⚽ Her Game Too: Visiting Fan Q&A

This week, we spoke to Lizzie Wilde Evans – a proud Shrewsbury Town supporter – ahead of their visit to Boundary Park. Here's what she had to say about football, fandom, and favourite memories.

🔵 Name:

Lizzie Wilde Evans

🟠 Club:

Shrewsbury Town Football Club ‘Salop’

📍 Hometown:

Shrewsbury

🗣️ Q&A

1. Tell us an interesting or unusual fact about your hometown or city.

Shrewsbury lays claim to building the world’s first multi-storey, iron-framed building. The Ditherington Flax Mill, built in 1797, was crucial in the development of modern skyscrapers. We also developed a delicious biscuit, the ingeniously and cunningly named ‘Shrewsbury biscuit’. I’m sure my first fact is the most impressive, but I had to mention the biscuits as well, as personally, I’m more interested in them!

2. What got you into football – and do you remember your first match?

My dad wasn’t a big football fan, but he always watched the ‘big matches’ on TV and I would watch them with him. He enjoyed football but was bemused by how obsessed with watching it I was becoming. The very first match I attended was in my nearest town, Shrewsbury. I don’t remember who we played, but I remember we won!

3. Why did you choose to support your club?

I went along to watch Salop just for the experience of watching a live match. I wasn’t expecting to be that bothered about the result – I just wanted to watch an actual match. I remember walking in, standing amongst what was mainly, if not all, male fans, and waiting for the match to begin. I wasn’t even familiar with who was in the team at that point. I watched them walk out and was immediately drawn into the cheering and singing along with the rest of the crowd. I literally felt goosebumps when everyone started singing. I remember thinking, “This is it! This is where I want to be!” You don’t get that feeling watching it on TV.

Would I have chosen a different team if it had been someone else I went to watch? Possibly, as I was just a football addict – I had no loyalty to any particular team, just the game. However, I will swear that it could only have been Salop now, if questioned!

Ticking off the 92!

4. Who was your footballing hero growing up?

Difficult to choose just one, but I loved Tino Asprilla – he was such an exciting player to watch.

5. What's your favourite football memory?

Without a doubt, the third round of the FA Cup on 4th January 2003, when we somehow beat Everton 2–1, in what for them must have been the worst way to go out of the FA Cup – dumped unceremoniously out of the cup by a team 80 places below them. I lived for talking about that match for years afterwards! Who am I kidding – I’m still talking about it now!

6. Do you travel to away games often? What’s been your favourite ground to visit?

I soon started going to most, if not all, of the away games. I did have a break of a few years after the birth of my son, but we eventually started going together to matches. Then when he started getting older and really interested in football, we started going to all the home games, and now we go to away games together too.

Favourite ground for me… well, this will be my first time at Boundary Park, so I’m going to say Barnsley for now! The stewards and fans there were great – not a bad ground either – but for me, I love it when you get friendly stewards and fans, a bit of friendly banter and some laughs with them. That’s what makes away matches special. To me, football is about every fan – we are all part of a big family. For 90 minutes I may yell at you, but I’ll talk to you for hours before and after!

When my son finally caught the bug for the game!

7. What’s the best chant or song your fans sing?

“Going down the Otley Road…” – an oldie but a classic!

8. Have you noticed attitudes toward female fans or the women’s game changing?

After 30-odd years of watching my team, I’m not even sure where to begin to describe the changes in attitude I’ve seen. I have not only seen the changes – I’ve experienced them! Watching football on TV meant I’d been sheltered to an extent from what walking onto the terraces for the first time would be like.

I carried with me a naivety that I was just another spectator, that I would fit in the same as anyone else. Being female wasn’t an issue in my head – but it turned out I was wrong. I wasn’t the only female there, but there weren’t many of us either. Whereas my male friends could turn to any random stranger and have a conversation about the match, the players, or the manager, not everyone would want to discuss those things with me.

If I tried to talk football, I was sometimes blatantly ignored, frequently patronised, and I lost count of how many times someone asked if I needed the offside rule explained, or worse – which player I fancied!

If the body language and attitude of some didn’t quite give you the message, the facilities did – like toilets for females. It was rare there would be more than two for women in the grounds I visited.

But times have changed, thankfully, and I can’t tell you how good it is to see so many women and young girls at grounds these days, and more importantly, to see them not being treated as oddities or outsiders. It makes my day to see so many women who are every bit as skilful and capable, playing and working in the football industry.

I don’t want to be treated differently because I’m a woman – I want to be treated the same. I want to feel my opinion, my attendance, and my contribution are just as welcome as anyone else’s, regardless of my sex. I don’t, and never did, want special treatment – I just want equality, for myself and every other female too.

Extended Family

9. Matchday traditions – any lucky charms or rituals?

I do have lucky rituals, but they change as soon as we lose a game… currently they change on a weekly basis!

10. If your club were a film or song, what would it be and why?

If it were a film –Titanic.

If it were a song –Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.

11. How have Shrewsbury started the season?

I’m not sure we’ve actually started the season so far… I refuse to give up hope though!

12. Shrewsbury player for us to look out for?

Tommy McDermott.

13. Where can you see them finishing this season?

Every part of me wants to say we’ll finish mid-table… and I will say that, as I still believe in miracles!

Super Sammy Austin

⚡ Quick Fire Round

🏟️ Favourite stadium (besides your own)?

The most impressive I’ve been in is Camp Nou, FC Barcelona.

🥧 Top matchday snack?

Cheesy chips.

🚌 Home or away days?

Both!

📺 VAR – yes or no?

Absolutely not.

👕 Dream player to sign for your club?

Well, the way our season is going, I’ll take just about anyone who knows how to kick a ball – but ideally, I’d want Cole Palmer. He knows his way around midfield and he knows where the net is!

💬 Final Thoughts

I just have to say that when these questions were put to me, I looked at them and they made me smile. Kerry, Alison, and the rest of the team are not only working passionately to ensure we are all treated equally and feel safe, but they are also treating us all equally already – they have the exact balance right.

They’ve given me a sense of value in the wider football family as a fan, not just because I’m female, and that’s something to be celebrated. Thank you all – I wish you and Oldham all the best for the future.

A huge thank you to Lizzie from all of us at Her Game Too Oldham for taking the time to share her story, experiences, and passion for football. We truly appreciate her honesty into how the game has evolved for female fans over the years. We’re proud to be part of a game that’s growing more welcoming every day – because football should always be for everyone.