Having been one of England’s leading lights for almost five years, Fran Kirby has an acute understanding of the importance of the Lionesses’ travelling show.
Chelsea star Kirby made her England bow – and found the net – in front of 4,547 supporters at Hartlepool United’s Victoria Park back in 2014.
The Lionesses strut their stuff in front of more sizeable crowds these days and as Phil Neville’s side gear up to this summer’s World Cup, they will visit the 30,000-seater Amex Stadium in Brighton to take on New Zealand on Saturday 1 June, just a week after their 2-0 win over Denmark in Walsall.
Kirby said: “We want to try and build our fanbase and make people more aware of the women’s game.
“We know that we have to travel to different places, play in different stadiums, and we really enjoy it.
“We really enjoying travelling up and down the country representing England and seeing how many fans we get in different places – it’s really special for us.
“It’s great to see how the women’s game is growing.
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“I’ve played for the England team for a number of years now and you see the difference and the number of people we’re getting to each game, or even the size of the stadium.
“My debut was in Hartlepool and it was great but we’ve gone on to play in Southampton at St. Mary’s [in a World Cup qualifier against Wales in front of 25,603 in April 2018].
“It’s on a completely different scale to when I first came into the squad so it’s really special.
“You can see that it’s an evolving sport in this country by the amount of young girls that come out to watch us play.”
England were drawn in Group D at the World Cup alongside Scotland, Argentina and 2011 winners Japan.
Their opening match is against Scotland in Nice on Sunday 9 June.
