Sylvia Gore

Sylvia Margaret Gore (25 November 1944 – 9 September 2016) was an English football player and coach. She scored the England women's national football team's first goal in its first official match, a 3–2 win over Scotland in Greenock in 1972, and was involved in women's football for 60 years.

Early life Gore was born in Prescot, Lancashire, and raised in the north-west of England.

Gore's father and uncle both played football for Prescot Cables and encouraged her to take up the game. The headteacher of her school vetoed any participation in the school team but she joined Manchester Corinthians in her early teens.

Playing and coaching career In 1972, Gore paid around £2,000 to progress through a series of trials for the first England team. She was accepted onto the team and made history by scoring the team's first goal in its first match on 18 November 1972.

Gore was in the Fodens team, originally a works team from the Edwin Foden, Sons & Co. lorry manufacturing plant in Sandbach, which defeated Southampton in the 1974 final of the Women's FA Cup. Gore recalled:

Gore was known as the Denis Law of women's football and once netted 134 goals in a season. She also worked as a football development officer for Knowsley council.

A new sports pavilion named after her on the King George V playing fields (Browns Field) in Knowsley was opened in 2025. She had played football here as a child. The pavilion will be managed by Berkley FC, a grassroots football club.

Later life Gore was a member of the FA women's committee for 20 years, and in 1999 she won a special achievement award at the inaugural FA Women's Football Awards. In 2014, she became the first female director at the Liverpool County Football Association. In the 2000 New Year Honours, Gore was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to girls' and women's football. She was inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame in 2014.

Gore died of cancer on 9 September 2016, aged 71.