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RESPECT DUE: Hope Powell

HOPE POWELL should be lauded for her contribution to women's football in England, according to Queens Park rangers technical director Chris Ramsey.

England had an outstanding recent Women's World Cup and eventually came fourth. Now Ramsey, one of the most respected coaches in the country and a recent recipient of an MBE, said: "Hope Powell did wonders for the game on in this country. She needs to take an enormous amount of credit for what she did for English football."

The Football Association appointed Powell as England's first-ever full-time national coach in 1998. She led the team at the 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013 editions of the UEFA Women's Championship.

After failing to qualify in 2003, she guided England to the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2007 and 2011. England's best results, reaching the final of the UEFA Women's Championship in 1984 and 2009, both featured Powell. She was a player at the former and coach at the latter. Powell is now the head coach at Brighton who made their Women's Super League debut last term.

VIEWS: Chris Ramsey

Ramsey said of the women's game: "The standard now is progressively getting better and in a generation or two it will make significant rise. It’s important that we keep supporting it."

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