Beth Mead and Mary Earps [Catherine Etoe]

THE BBC’s ‘Sports Personality Of The Year’ event – or SPOTY as they want us to call it, to sound young – hit its 70th birthday, looking more fatigued as each year passes.

You can tell an award ceremony isn’t as prestigious as it thinks it is when even some of the winners make polite excuses not to attend. The more the Beeb ramps it up and tries to make it like the Oscars, the more desperate it all seems – maybe because we as a country, dare I say it, do not have enough stunning sports staff to cater for a whole evening. Perhaps it could be squeezed into half an hour after Only Connect has finished.

When Sir Kenny Dalglish went up to accept a lifetime achievement award, sure there were some big-name players from the past clapping him on the stage – but also Tim Sherwood.

The saving grace of course has been the overdue wider wake-up in recent years that women play and excel at sports too and England goalkeeper Mary Earps was the obvious overall winner from the shortlist.

Let’s hope it adds to the momentum. This paper remains dedicated to covering women’s football, and has been for more years than we can remember. Our former sports editor Catherine Etoe was there in the press box before it was a box.

But even though the Emirates Stadium can hit 50,000 for Arsenal matches and SKY and the BBC are showing more live games, there are still hurdles.

When the World Cup went to Australia, some of your lads down the pub came up with elaborate excuses about the matches starting at the wrong time for the reason that they weren’t following along.

There is no way a morning kick-off would have stood in the way of them watching the men’s World Cup. They should stop lying to themselves.

In the end, it’s their loss. Earps is not the only entertainer in the sport. She’s one of hundreds. You should stop saying you find the Lionesses inspiring unless you get the WSL on your box.

It’s far more thrilling than an evening watching SPOTY.

• MERRY Christmas to all readers. Arsenal may not be top of the league this December 25 – that all depends on Anfield – but they will at least be close to summit and are proving that last year’s title challenge was not a fluky one-off and actually a sign of revival. Arsenal are, we must hope, back! That doesn’t mean Mikel Arteta is the sage some think he is. The transfer window is a chance for him to prove he learns from last term’s big mistake – an opportunity to buy a striker to help the Gunners keep up with the pace.