Lynda Shepherd (born 5 May 1985) is a retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who played for FA Women's Premier League Northern Division club

Blackburn Rovers L.F.C. FC Blackburn Ladies Football Club are an English women's football club affiliated with Blackburn Rovers. In 2006, they won the second tier FA Women's Premier League Northern Division and were promoted to the FA Women's Premier League National D ...

She represented

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

at international level, after playing for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at under–21 and under–23 levels.

Club career

Shepherd played for Manchester United Ladies before joining Stockport County Ladies. She joined Blackburn Rovers Ladies in July 2005. Shepherd joined

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

ahead of the 2011

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

season. She was loaned out to

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in the meantime. At the halfway point of the

2012 FA WSL The 2012 FA WSL is the second season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's football league of England. The season began on 8 April 2012 and was scheduled to end in October 2012. The league is to break between 8 July and 19 August to allow prepar ...

, Liverpool were again rooted to the bottom of the table and sacked manager Robbie Johnson. Shepherd,

Ruesha Littlejohn Ruesha Littlejohn (born 3 July 1990) is an Irish footballer who plays as a striker for FAWSL side Aston Villa. She has also had four spells with Glasgow City and stints with Norwegian First Division club IL Sandviken and English sides Arsenal ...

and Nicola Twohig were released by incoming manager Matt Beard. Later that month Shepherd signed for Manchester City.

International career

Shepherd was first selected for England's under–21 team in July 2004, playing in the Nordic Cup. In 2006, Shepherd was named as a late replacement for the England Senior Team's training trip to La Manga Club. She later played for England at under–23 level. In February 2008 she scored for England U–23s against Germany, also in La Manga. In 2013 Shepherd accepted a call–up to the senior

squad. She made her debut in a 5–1 hammering by the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

in the

2013 Cyprus Cup The 2013 Cyprus Women's Cup was the sixth edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. It took place between 3–14 March 2013. Defending champions France cancelled their participation ju ...

. At the same tournament Shepherd scored her first goal for the Irish, a consolation in a 2–1 defeat against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Blackburn statistics

''To October 2009''

References

1985 births Living people Footballers from Plymouth, Devon English women's footballers Blackburn Rovers L.F.C. players Liverpool F.C. Women players FA Women's National League players Women's Super League players England women's under-23 international footballers Women's association footballers from Northern Ireland Manchester City W.F.C. players Northern Ireland women's international footballers English people of Northern Ireland descent Women's association football midfielders Stockport County L.F.C. players {{England-women-footy-bio-stub