Winger Sue Smith has played on the international stage for over a decade. One of her career highlights came when she was selected to play for the Rest of the World in an exhibition match against the USA in February 1999.
Now, as Sue and the rest of the England squad prepare to fly out to France on Monday with a place in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup at stake, she reflects on two games against Les Bleus four years ago, as well as looking forward to next Saturday’s game.
I remember the last meeting with France in a two-legged play-off in 2002 and really hope that we get a different result this time.
In the home leg at Crystal Palace, Rachel Yankey and myself played a half each on the left. I came on at half time and my best chance of scoring was with a diving header. I’ve never been the best at heading, although I surprised myself in the home qualifier against Austria at Gillingham recently.
It was a cold evening and the likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Sylvain Wiltord were in the stand watching the French girls. Marinette Pichon showed her class and netted the only goal.
So it was left for us to travel to Saint Etienne in front of a partisan French crowd and fight back from the deficit. The team was quite nervous as for some it was the biggest crowd they’d ever played in front of.
I came on for the last two minutes but the game finished 1-0 again, and we came home devastated to have failed in our bid to get to the World Cup.
That was absolutely gutting and because of this, the girls still involved in this squad from 2002 want to avenge those two defeats and more importantly, get ourselves through to the World Cup in China next year.
For me this would be my biggest achievement at International level and after 10 years in the squad think it is well overdue.
Faye White, incidentally missed both those games in 2002 due to a cruciate injury, just as she unfortunately will do this time around. I hope for Faye's sake, and the rest of the squad, that we do the business in Rennes.
Our squad is stronger and better prepared than ever and I think we will be difficult to beat. The home game in March at Ewood Park was very tough with Rachel Brown winning the Player of the Match award, indicating the end-to-end nature of the game that day.
We do only need a point in Rennes next weekend but we musn’t go there with defending in mind; we should go there to win and continue playing as we have been throughout this campaign.
One good aspect is the support we will be taking with us including friends and families of the squad and staff who have been allocated their own Stand to cheer us on.
That will definitely be an extra incentive for the squad and we hope that those there in Rennes, including a good number of English media will have something to celebrate next Saturday evening.
This is a good time for Women's football in this country and we hope that this period will extend to next summer, where participation in a World Cup would inspire even more young girls to take up the game. I certainly hope so.
You can check out Sue’s website:
www.suesmith8.co.uk
for her thoughts after the game, and there is a place you can leave messages of support for the squad.