England Womens Team get World Cup qualifying campaign underway with 8-0 win

England Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign got underway tonight with England beating Malta 8-0. Against opponents ranked 81 places below themselves at 89th in the world, Hope Powell’s team hit four goals in each half. The score is fantastic but it could have been much more. Malta have already been thrashed 13-0 by Spain in these qualifiers.

Powell made seven changes to the team that had lost in the Euro 2009 Final last month. A Fara Williams hat-trick, two goals for Jess Clarke and strikes from Faye White, Emily Westwood and Rachel Unitt (No 3 in the picture above) were enough to secure the points at Bloomfield Road. The second string line up found this game a stroll but especially after Malta’s Natasha Pace was sent off in the 57th minute.

Powell admitted after the game;

“We scored eight but it should have been 20, so that’s disappointing. We created lots of chances, but there was a lack of quality in front of goal. The most important thing was the three points though, and we gave several players the chance of gaining more international experience and that was important too.”

Sadly the Grimsby story seems to have revealed itself to be a bit of a no-go with all parties saying there has been no contact or interest by Hope Powell. I think she would be ideal but maybe the right scenario hasn’t come up for her yet, I guess we’ll watch this space.

England’s next game is against Turkey on November 26th.