Wolves’ Sporting Star columnist John Lalley took a break from the norm and attended a game with a difference with the club’s female team in action.

When it comes to football, I suppose I’m as chauvinistic as the next guy and I’ll admit that when any BBC Radio Five Live announcer utters the words, ‘commentary comes from Jacqui Oatley.’

I’m hardly cartwheeling in handstands of unbridled delight. No, old-fashioned prejudice takes some time in being chipped away and, after all, football is the most blokish activity on God’s earth. Or maybe it isn’t.

After a long, disappointed drive back from Portsmouth the day before, it was time for a long overdue trip to the Goodrich Sports Stadium in Fordhouses to watch the Wolves Women team in action.

A new football experience for me and, as it turned out, a rewarding one.

Difficulty finding the venue made me slightly late and that meant that I missed striker Dani Selmes put Wolves into an early lead against Copsewood, a team based in Coventry and like their hosts operating in the Midland Women’s Combination League.

This in effect is the third tier of the women’s game and Wolves have slipped down the rankings in recent seasons and their mission statement is to restore their elevated status as quickly as they can.

I soon felt at home as, within seconds of my arrival, one of the Wolves players bellowed out a raging Anglo-Saxon expletive after being unceremoniously barged aside by an opponent. That’s the spirit!

Selmes up front immediately caught my eye – her rangy, Derek Dougan like style was proving a real handful for the Copsewood defence.

A glance at the matchday programme – an excellent effort the publication is too – confirmed that Selmes had so far rattled in 17 goals in 23 games this season. It came as no surprise, as she clearly knows how to lead an attack.

It was a bitterly cold afternoon, a real endurance test for a spectator. The wide open spaces save for a neat stand on one side and the old changing rooms behind one of the goals meant that the wind whistled uncomfortably in the faces of the sparse attendance.

But they lacked for nothing in terms of enthusiasm, there was much talk and anticipation in the cold air regarding Wednesday’s trip to Solihull to play Birmingham in the County Cup final. The Blues team sit two divisions higher than Wolves, but optimism was rife regarding an upset.

None of the women need any patronising from the likes of me relating to their commitment, fitness levels or their appetite for competition.

No amount of masculine cynicism can hide the fact that players like Hayley Packer, Amber Quick and Sophie Walker possess in the parlance of football, ‘good engines’ enabling them to bomb from box to box without flagging for the full duration of 90 minutes.

Besides, the pace of the game was too much for the referee. He had to give it neck at half-time, limping off injured with Wolves still one goal to the good!

Jenny Wilkes, the local radio presenter and all round supporter of the team stood intently behind one of the goals, notebook in hand assiduously taking notes in true Terry Connor like mode.

She told me that next season, the Football Association have decided upon an elite eight team Women’s League to contest at the highest level of the English game.

Full-time and semi-professional players will constitute these teams with Wednesday’s opponents Blues already accepted into this top echelon.

For Wolves, life for the moment at least remains a little more mundane.

The players pay their subs to play and hold down a variety of differing occupations during the week.

Some are students, central defender Layla Salter having reached post-graduate status at university. The captain Anna Perks is a teacher, midfielder Amber Quick is a full time professional tennis coach, whilst Sophie Walker is an accident and emergency doctor.

That took me by surprise, but why should it?

Subconsciously we still inadvertently pigeon-hole people and expect them to fit snugly into stereotyped roles often determined by gender alone.

I don’t suppose for a moment that women’s football is free from the derision of many and the complete apathy of others and it must be an interminably difficult conundrum for those charged with the responsibility of furthering its profile.

No easy task, I’ll bet, but one deserving of support. Most of us are more inclusive than we admit to when push comes to shove.

As part of the Wolves Community Scheme, the Molineux administration offers assistance with transport on occasions and the exhibition organisation Dowlis supplies kit to both the women’s and the girl’s teams.

A girl’s Centre of Excellence operates for eigth to 16 year olds with trials beginning on June 7, hoping to attract new players and sustain their interest in the game.

But, just as in every other sphere of the game, the desperate search for extra sponsorship goes on.

The better players will inevitably move on – former Wolves player Rachel Unitt now a seasoned England international picked up a FA Cup winners medal playing for Everton on Bank Holiday Monday in the final at the Nottingham Forest ground.

Televised live on Sky Sports, the match was a dramatic spectacle played in front of a healthy attendance and settled in extra time with Everton overcoming hot favourites Arsenal 3-2. It really was a cracking game.

Back at Goodrich, early second half strikes from Sophie Richards – an excellent finish high into the net from the inside right channel – and Sophie Walker – great first touch and lovely finish latching onto a superb pass from Kirstie Bavington – put Wolves in total control. Hayley Packer added a fourth before a brave but essentially outclassed Copsewood reduced the deficit.

Late on, Selmes completed the scoring when she, as I suspected she might, coolly converted a penalty with the aplomb of a Kenny Hibbitt or an Andy Thompson to make for an emphatic 5-1 Wolves win.

One disgruntled and frustrated Copsewood player chipped away at the replacement referee all the way back to the restart and was deservedly yellow-carded for her display of dissent. It was indeed competitive to the very end!

When you are browsing the match programme before or at half-time during Sunday’s game against Sunderland don’t pass over the page dedicated to Wolves Women – have a read instead – keep an interest in their progress, I know I will.

It was a decent game and well worth watching. I promise you, I’ve seen far worse at Molineux over the years!