On Saturday, Marrie Wieczorek will attend England’s women’s international with Brazil at the Riverside. She will applaud the athleticism and artistry of the likes of Beth Mead and Jordan Nobbs, former Middlesbrough academy players who are now mainstays of the national team. She will take huge satisfaction from the sight of a 30,000-plus crowd, packing into Middlesbrough’s stadium to watch women’s football. And at some stage, she will cast her mind back almost 40 years to her own international career and marvel at just how much has changed.

“I remember my first England call-up vividly,” said Wieczorek, who was capped three times by England in the early 1980s, playing against Belgium in Brussels, Wales in Warminster and Sweden at Leicester City’s Filbert Street ground. “I was so proud, but also a bit nervous about whether I’d get the time off work.

“All the players back then used to have jobs, and I remember knocking on my boss’ door to ask whether I could have time off to play. Then, I had to save up for the train fare because I had to pay my way down to London where the squad met up. I remember getting on the train with all my gear, so excited to be playing for my country. I expect it’s a bit different when they meet up now.”

Just a bit. Wieczorek played at a time when women’s football was a fringe pursuit disregarded by both the footballing authorities and wider public, indeed for most of her youth, it was a challenge just to be able to take part in any sort of a game.

Her parents, Middlesbrough-born Marie and Polish immigrant Czeslaw, loved football, and she attended Sacred Heart Primary School, just a goal-kick away from Ayresome Park. For a while, she joined in with her male classmates as they played in the street or in Albert Park, but as their games became more formalised, so she found herself excluded.

“I’ve always loved kicking a ball around,” she said. “I guess back then, you would have called me a tomboy, when it was a term of affection. It was unusual, I was probably the only girl playing with all the lads, but it didn’t really become an issue until I left primary school and went to St Mary’ Convent, an all-girls grammar school. Then, playing football became a real no-no.

“There were no girls’ teams, and as a girl, you weren’t allowed to play in the boys’ leagues, so I started playing other sports, but my love of football never really disappeared.

“Once I’d left school, I was working at Pontins holiday camp, and one of my friends sent me a newspaper cutting about a girls’ team that was being set up in Middlesbrough. Things went from there.”

Wieczorek was integral in the establishment of Cleveland Spartans, the club that would eventually become Middlesbrough Ladies. Playing in the Humberside and Nottingham Leagues because it was impossible to get enough competition in the North-East, they played their home games at local workingmen’s clubs and were briefly trained by Middlesbrough players Mark Proctor and David Hodgson.

“It took a while to get things off the ground, but I was involved with Middlesbrough Ladies for 22 years and only finished playing once I’d got into my 40s,” she said. “It was great to see the club grow. Steve Gibson was very supportive, and as well as playing, I also got involved with Middlesbrough’s community work. I suppose that became my life.”

Having started to work with Middlesbrough In the Community when it was based at Ayresome Park, Wieczorek has spent almost three decades devoting herself to Boro’s community work, with a particular focus on growing women’s football and encouraging girls to take up the game.

She is now employed as a project worker with the MFC Foundation, based at the charity’s Herlingshaw Centre in South Bank, and is thrilled at the way in which women’s football has become entrenched in the sporting mainstream in the last few years.

“It’s all so different now, and that’s brilliant,” she said. “I remember when dads used to bring their girls to play football, and it was almost like they were ashamed. Now, they can’t wait to drop them off and see them play.

“I can point to people like Beth and Jordan, with their Middlesbrough links, and say to young girls, ‘Look, you can have a great career in football. You can make it to the top as a player, or you can have a career in coaching or management’. That wasn’t the case when I was playing, so I’m just so happy that things have changed to where they are now.”

* Tickets for England Women v Brazil at Middlesbrough on Saturday, October 5 (ko 12.45pm), priced only £10 adults and £1 concessions, are on sale now at www.TheFA.com/Tickets