England Ladies Thrash Montenegro in World Cup Qualifier
England Women’s team annihilated Montenegro 9-0 in their fifth World Cup Qualifier at Brighton’s AMEX Community Stadium. In amongst the scorers was Manchester City forward Toni Duggan who scored a hat trick. England were 2-0 up after 15 minutes thanks to Duggan, by half time, Eniola Aluko and Jill Scott had doubled the goal tally.
After the break, Montenegro’s woeful defence were subjected to the same treatment as the first half, Karen Carney made it 5-0 on 49 minutes. The onslaught continued 6 minutes later when Lianne Sanderson notched England’s sixth, then South Florida Blues left back Demi Stokes drove a powerful strike beyond the Montenegro goalkeeper. 7-0. By this point the visitor’s defence had congealed into a general mass in the middle of their own half and could do little to stop Duggan completing her hat trick and Natasha Dowie rounding off the scoring.
The nine goal haul is the most England have managed in any of their qualifiers so far and new head coach Mark Sampson could be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed with such a lavish welcome present. Toni Duggan told Latest Sport how he’s adjusted to his new position: “Mark’s made some great improvements and you can see the buzz around the squad’s fantastic and it’s great to be a part of.”
England’s victory at the AMEX was also Steph Houghton’s first game as England’s captain. The Manchester City defender takes over from Casey Stoney and she told us how she felt when she was given the good news: “It’s a bit of a blur, as soon as Mark asked me I just said ‘wow’, I couldn’t stop smiling to be honest – it’s a really proud moment for me and my family.”
Before the game, the FA organised a fanzone to give the England fans the opportunity to test their reaction speed, the strength of their shot and their accuracy in a range of interactive games. In amongst the melee of mascots and flying footballs we caught up with the FA’s Director of the National Game and Women’s Football, Kelly Simmons MBE, who thinks women and girls’ football is changing. “It’s the biggest female team sport in the country, it’s come along a huge way.
We’ve got a great network of clubs and leagues providing football for girls and young women across the country, so it’s growing and growing.”
8,908 people were in attendance for England’s demolition of Montenegro and will have left the AMEX thoroughly satisfied. The only blemish – their chants of ‘we want 10!’ were not realised, but then, we can’t have everything.
