Match 400, the Nations League tie against Austria on 30 May, is also significant for several other reasons, not least it being the first Scotland game under new coach Melissa Andreatta, who has just been appointed by the Scottish FA. She joins at a time when the team has lost its last five matches, although it was unbeaten in its previous eleven.
That night at Hampden the Scottish FA will also be presenting retrospective caps to some of the pioneers of Scottish women's football, players from the 1970s and 1980s who did not receive recognition at the time. This is a continuation of a project which I have been working on: I have been part of a small team of historians, endeavouring to compile a full record of the early Scotland matches and identify the players who took part.
I wrote before about this project in 2022 and since then there have been a few updates and corrections, even in fairly recent times. For example, a fascinating story by Sarah Crilly led to the discovery of missing appearances which are not recorded in the Scottish FA archive. In fact, the SFA archive leaves a lot to be desired, only going back to 2008 and with a number of errors since then.
For the first time I am publishing match-by-match records of the Scotland team from 1972 to 1997, together with illustrations and programme covers. During those years, the team was administered by the Scottish Women's FA. The information is still incomplete and it has been a challenging task to get this far, as many records have been lost and most matches had little or no media coverage. In several instances there is a squad list but no known teamline, and even some goalscorers remain unidentified, so this is very much a work in progress. I remain hopeful that further records can be uncovered so that the history can be improved.
If you think you can contribute to or correct these statistics in any way, please don't hesitate to get in touch through my Contact Form.
Essential records
Click on each of these headings:
An overview of all Scotland women's international matches, 1972-2025. [Excel spreadsheet]
The complete record of Scotland under the Scottish Women's FA, 1972-1997. [pdf]
The complete record of Scotland under the Scottish FA, 1998-2025. [pdf]