Getting more girls playing football will be better legacy than England Women winning World Cup

But this is not the end for our women, just the continuation of an exciting journey. Please don’t put me in the Tower but perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise England lost on Sunday.

Would their potential triumph have seen the development of the sport drown in an ocean of hysteria?

First and foremost, it’s about getting young girls of all ages and abilities getting to play our beautiful game, moving almost a generation off the sofas and away from their devices to play this sport we all love.

There’s been a danger, possibly fuelled by the recent progress of the Lionesses, of a misconception that there will be some kind of parity between the men’s and the women’s games.

The women’s game is already strong and will become an even stronger stand-alone sport, but at times it seems like the whole concept has been hijacked by people, a number of whom with a non-sporting agenda, who want things to be perceived the same as the men’s game.

But it isn’t, and we’ve clearly seen that in the wake of the defeat against Spain.

The media coverage after Sunday’s game was both conciliatory and congratulatory, but there’s no way of dressing it up – the England performance was well below the aforementioned expectation.

Now just imagine how the papers would have treated that level of performance and defeat by the England men’s team in a major final. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it, we had it 25 months ago when England lost to Italy in the European Championship final.

It was, I recall, somewhat different, as was the media treatment of Lauren James, sent off for stamping on an opponent in the last 16 against Nigeria. Anyone remember a young David Beckham back in 1998?

Fast forward to next years Men’s Euros in Germany, and how would a similar ‘challenge’ and subsequent red card for Jack Grealish or Phil Foden, for example, be viewed by the media?

Thankfully James wont have to endure effigies of herself when she plays away from home in the upcoming WSL season.

The bottom line is that players in the WSL will never enjoy the same financial rewards as their male counterparts in the EPL, nor will the WSL attract the same sustained level of attendances, whatever the respective tub-thumpers might want to have us believe.

And sometimes that almost zealous attitude grinds with the wider public and almost detracts from Women’s football rightly being a sport in its own right, not just a ‘lesser’ version of the men’s game.

Locally my company is proud to be one of the shirt sponsors at Worthing United Youth FC, where they now have nine girls’ squads, with over 100 girls playing football every week… 10 years ago they had none!

That, for me, is far more significant and important to further the cause of women’s football.