Strength In Depth

Lianne Sanderson headed the Three Lions into the lead on 16 minutes and her strike partner, Eniola Aluko doubled the advantage with a cute finish on 68 minutes. Debutant, Ellen White, sealed the victory with a neat chip just before the full-time whistle.

This result leaves England on nine points from their opening three qualifiers, three points behind leaders Spain, who they face next week, but with a game in hand.

Through a combination of tactical and injury-forced reasons, there were six changes from the side that beat Turkey 3-0 in the last Qualifier in November and Powell believes the quality of her squad bodes well for the future.

“Competition is now very fierce and no one position is a foregone conclusion anymore, which is good,” Hope Powell said after the match.

“We now have players who can play in quite a few positions and we didn’t have that, say, five years ago. We were missing a few players for this match; Karen Carney, Anita Asante, Kelly Smith, Jess Clarke, to name just a few, so it helps us that players can move around the pitch. It’s good for the team and it’s a fight for places.

“All the players have to work extremely hard to stay in the team and they know that. We’ve got ambitious players, we’ve got youngsters who want to play and from my point of view, it’s a good position to be in.”

“I’m really pleased for Ellen and for Claire Rafferty [who also made her debut against Austria],” said Powell. “They both earned their call-up and they’ve done well in training all week.

Though they had won their opening two Qualifiers, against Malta and Turkey, comfortably, the performance against Austria was England’s best to date in this qualification campaign. Aluko and Sanderson linked up well, the defence were alert to the – admittedly rare – Austria counter-attack and the midfield four remained combative and dangerous throughout. They also put together a host of confident passing moves, particularly after the break.

“Second half, I thought was a lot better,” concurred Powell. “We got somewhat congested in the centre of the pitch and we couldn’t work the ball out wide. We just lost our way a little bit but we sorted a few things out at half-time, the players implemented them after the break and the game opened up, so that was pleasing.

With Spain also enjoying a 100 per cent start in qualifying, the two matches between England and Ignacio Quereda Laviña’s side could go a long way to deciding which nation tops Group 5 and subsequently makes it through to the two-legged play-off in September.

England take on Spain at Millwall FC on Thursday March 31st, kick-off 7pm.

Source – TheFA.com