ON WEDNESDAY evening, an England team will step out in a World Cup semi-final for the first time since 1990.

Mark Sampson’s side reached their first-ever World Cup semi-final after a 2-1 victory over Canada on Saturday night, and they go on to face champions Japan in Edmonton.

Saturday’s game was broadcast to 1.6million viewers on BBC One, with an even higher figure expected tomorrow.

With women’s football moving from the minority to the majority, what will be the lasting legacy of England’s success in the tournament – and can this inspire a generation?

The Northern Echo:

STEPH HOUGHTON, ENGLAND CAPTAIN

WE all mention the Olympics and how much of a watershed moment that was for women's football in England.

Playing at Wembley and getting 70,000 fans to watch us beat Brazil was a massive moment but the fact that we're making history and we made history last week, and we made history again on Saturday, it just shows how much people have got supporting us back at home.

We always said that we had one aim when we came here, that was to inspire and I think, hopefully, if the mums and dads have let their young girls watch the game late on Saturday in England I think, hopefully, we've got a lot of young girls playing football at an early age and in the next few years we have a stronger English national team.

That's the ultimate aim and to keep growing the game. Hopefully, we've inspired those girls to do that.

The Northern Echo:

KELLY SIMMONS, FA DIRECTOR OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

We need to ask ourselves - why do these perceptions still pervade?

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is currently taking centre-stage and domestically, the FA Women’s Super League continues to grow. The profile and professionalism of the women’s game has never been greater.

The FA is doing its part to ensure the game is an attractive mass participation sport for girls and women, but we should ask why does society allow antiquated attitudes to persist?

Let’s have an open and honest discussion – in doing so we want to shatter the myth that football is for boys, and give thousands of girl the opportunity to enjoy our beautiful national game and all the benefits of taking part in team sports.

Increasing girls’ confidence that football is a sport for them and showcasing positive role models are crucial.

The Northern Echo:

LEE SANDERS, DURHAM WOMEN GENERAL MANAGER

The participation picked up after the Olympics, tailed off a bit then picked up again after the Women’s Super League started. It could go through the roof now.

I think the FA have done an excellent job in investing in the game, when you see international games being played at Wembley and the WSL doing so well. That is only going to benefit the national team and you’re starting to see the effects of that now.

When you see the viewing figures, 1.6million for the Canada game, 2.3million for the game against Colombia, you wonder what it would be like if these games were played earlier in the day.

The FA launched their scheme ‘We Can Play’ before the World Cup to get mums and dads to encourage their daughters to get into football.

It’s an opportunity for the schools to do something too, to treat their girls’ teams like they do the boys, and that will bring more players through.

Of course, the more girls at a younger age that we have coming through the academy system, the better. They can benefit from our coaching and improve as players which will have a beneficial effect.

We’re fortunate that we have five players in the England squad from the North-East. It’s a shame they couldn’t do that while at North-East clubs but now we have the WSL 1 and 2 and we have Durham and Sunderland in there, girls don’t have to move away to be a success anymore. The fact that the England squad has so many players from the region is something for us all to be proud of.

The Northern Echo:

CARLTON FAIRWEATHER, SUNDERLAND COACH

It’s creating history for the women’s game. It’s being compared to the men’s game in that the men always seem to go in the quarter-finals and that England’s women have gone on to the semi-finals is an achievement in itself. There’s a good opportunity now to make the final.

You look at the viewing figures for the games that have been televised so far, they’ve been good. And also at the games, they have played in front of 50-odd thousand in the stadium, it can only bode well for the women’s game. With the games that we have here in WSL1, they’ve been good as well and that’s going in the right direction.

We’ll get more girls wanting to play the game, and being involved with clubs, that gives the opportunity to pick from a bigger pool of players which increases competition.

We’re in a fortunate position in that we have a centre of excellence, we have a development squad as well, and what we try to do is make sure there’s a pathway for our centre of excellence kids to get through to the first team. We have some players in our development squad who have done well and have got through to the first team and have trained with them.

There’s a pathway there. Girls can now see that they can be a professional footballer. The opportunity to play Super League football, to play abroad, and to play for your country. There’s a wider opportunity for girls to develop.

It’s happening now, girls don’t have to go abroad anymore to play professional football. They can develop here. There’s an opportunity to progress and it’s all about giving the players the opportunity to develop and improve. If we create those opportunities you’re always going to get players to develop.