Nearly 20 years after that meeting with the FAW, the women’s team was still pretty much an afterthought.

But another pivotal moment arrived in 2010 in the form of a man from Finland.

Jarmo Matikainen was appointed Wales women’s first ever full-time manager.

A hard taskmaster who demanded more from his players and more from the FAW.

“He just came in and it was black or white with Jarmo,” said Gwennan Harries who won 56 caps for Wales.

“At first it took us all by shock a little bit but when you were in camp you realised, he’s pushing us because he expects better from us, we’re good enough to be competing and challenging.

“He brought in a lot of rules that we weren’t used to.

“At meals we couldn’t have any ketchup because it had too much sugar in and we needed to lose weight.

“But we’d never spoken to a nutritionist so none of us realised that those added things helped your professionalism, to get the best out of your body.

“We were so clueless in that aspect.

“He came in and made us realise that we were elite athletes playing for our country.”

Under Matikainen’s stewardship came the first of the near misses.

Wales took the challenge for a play-off place for Euro 2013 to the final game but lost the decisive match to Scotland.

The same happened two years later to Ukraine for the 2015 World Cup.

But for the first time Wales had belief that qualification was not just a pipedream.

Ludlow succeeded Matikainen in 2014 and they got even closer.

Seven games unbeaten and seven consecutive clean sheets before defeat in the final match to England at Rodney Parade which sent their rivals to the 2019 World Cup at their expense.

That campaign included a goalless draw against England at St Mary’s Stadium, a result hailed by Ludlow at the time as their best ever.

“The memory that sticks out the most was going into the changing room afterwards,” she said.

“I opened the door, listened a little bit, shut the door and I walked off and I found a little space to chill.

“My phone went berserk for a few days after that, everybody took note.

“But for me, I had my family with me at the time, I went back to the hotel, got up and went to Peppa Pig World the next day because my young daughter was desperate to go!”