Steven Thompson: Former Scotland cap has been converted to women's football

Former Scotland striker Steven Thompson is in France to follow the national team in the Women's World Cup. Here, he gives an insight into his journey from professional footballer three years ago to women's football champion.

I had been to a game or two before the first Euro 2017 game against England. Obviously, I had researched the girls well and had given myself a lot of background knowledge on their careers, but the problem I had was that, from the stand, so many of the players looked similar with their pony tails in.

So to give me a better chance of avoiding making a fool of myself, I got a pair of scissors and cut out their headshots before sticking them into my notes next to their name to give me a better idea of what I was doing.

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I absolutely won't need to do any cutting and pasting this time, and there will be so many of the squad who will be pushing themselves into the realms of household names now. Certainly, we all hope that will be the case come the end of the World Cup.

I think you would be very much in the minority as an ex-player if you had an idea of what was going on in the women's game. Obviously I started taking an interest when we got to the Euros because I was covering the games, and it was a steep learning curve.

'A lot of older women tell me girls shouldn't play'

There are still some sceptics out there. It's not really people within the men's game, but those outside football who refuse to buy into it. When I go to the gym in the morning, I get a lot of older women come up to me and they are the worst. Back in their day women weren't allowed to play football, and they can't shift that mentality.

We are at the stage now that girls are playing football. It shouldn't be a shock. There's a pathway and the attitude has changed. You will always have the guys who can't deal with it and say 'they shouldn't be playing football'. It is embedded in some people. On the other hand, you had over 18,000 people at Hampden to watch the game against Jamaica last week.

There is one thing I always say to my mates, though. Don't compare it to men's football. It's not as fast, it's not as physical, but look at their technique and quality. This Scotland team have something really special, they have put Scotland back on the international stage. It's something we all should be getting behind.

I was at the game before the Euros against Romania but sadly my first standout memory of watching the women's team was the 6-0 thumping from England in the opening game of the tournament. They just tore us to shreds. I remember thinking after that game 'this isn't good…' but since then the standard and competitive nature of the squad has soared. We won't take a beating off England this time around.

We have players who are unbelievable. If you look at the central midfield three of Caroline Weir and Kim Little with Erin Cuthbert in front as a number 10, that trio is up there with the best in this competition. It's a strong, strong squad.

The girls now have this belief that wasn't there before. They turned up at the Euros perhaps just happy to be there. Whereas last year the top team in the world, the USA, only beat Scotland 1-0 in a friendly last year. That's because Shelley Kerr has the girls believing they can win every game they play in. I can't wait to see them in action.

Steven Thompson was speaking to BBC Scotland's Scott Mullen