AFC Wimbledon Ladies' manager Chris Lyons reckons the exploits of the England women's team at the World Cup in Canada has changed the perception of the game on home soil.

England suffered semi-final heart-break when Laura Bassett's injury time own goal sent Japan into a final they subsequently lost against USA.

However, a Fara Williams' penalty in a 1-0 win over Germany - their first in 21 attempts - sealed a third-place finish.

Lyons said: “There has certainly been in a change in the perception of the women’s game.

“I have been in the game for eight years and when I started I found people had a very belittling attitude toward women’s football, but I think that bigotry is now subsiding.”

He added: “I think the BBC’s televised coverage has been fantastic, and it is great to see high profile England legends like Gary Lineker, Stuart Pearce and Ian Wright promoting women’s football.

"It’s a massive step forward for the game."

Lyons believes that part of the reason the nation was so enraptured with Bassett, Williams and co is that they are easier to identify with than their male counterparts.

“Rather than players earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a week, you see a player on quite a modest salary and she’s making sacrifices to play for her country. I think that makes them easier to relate to,” he said.

AFC Wimbledon Ladies vice-captain Libby Suchley was delighted to see the Lionesses progress, but she was also impressed by the character they showed to win in the third place play-off after the heartbreaking semi-final loss.

She said: “We deserved to go through to the final. It was an awful, awful way to go out, I really felt for Laura Bassett.

“We’ve all had something like happen like that, such as missing a penalty, and it does stick with you but they bounced back brilliantly.”

Suchley also believes the Lionesses will provide great role models for the next generation of female players.

“I don’t want to give away my age but when I was younger games were not on television and you didn’t really have anybody to look up to,” she said.

“But now everybody seems to be talking about it, there is a lot of enthusiasm, and we just need to keep that going.”

Club captain Jess Trimnell hopes the FA continue to build on the momentum created by the World Cup.

“In the last five years the grassroots game has really improved, and hopefully the vision that the FA have for the women’s Super League will continue to inspire a younger generation coming through,” she said.

Wandsworth Times:

Heroes: The England Lionesses finished third in the FIFA Women's World Cup