FA Cup: The girl in the Gang - being Wimbledon's physio at 1988 final
Brouwer (far left) celebrates with the rest of the Wimbledon team in the wake of their 1988 FA Cup final over Liverpool, as manager Bobby Gould embraces goalkeeper Dave Beasant Caroline Brouwer had barely walked out of the job interview before the argument began behind her. "One of the coaches was very old school and very, very anti having a woman on the team," she remembers. "I could hear the argument as I left. One said, 'Who the hell else are we going to get? There is nobody in the area and we have got to have someone.'" The vacancy was for an assistant physio and Brouwer, as the candidate, was perfectly qualified. But, the date was December 1981 and the club was Wimbledon - a time and workplace quite different from today. Unbeknown to Brouwer, then 22, she had applied to be part of a dressing room that would become the most storied in English football - a buoyant mix of brutality and camaraderie that would rise to the top of the game. After her interview...