England manager Phil Neville has admitted that his side were too static and showed signs of fatigue in their 2-0 victory over Denmark at The Banks’s Stadium this afternoon.
Goals from Nikita Parris and Jill Scott fired the Lionesses to a comfortable victory in Walsall, although it could be argued that they were not at their best.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, England boss Neville said that he was happy with the result but lack of movement from his side was a cause for concern.
“We half-expected that kind of performance” confessed Neville. “We were a little bit leggy, coming off the back of the end of the season and we have been training hard.
“The pitch was energy-sapping but the disappointment in the first half was that we didn’t play with any kind of rhythm, we played stand still football.
“We made the wrong decisions, we were clashing heads, bumping and it just looked messy. There was no composure on the pitch.”
Neville’s starting line-up had a somewhat unfamiliar feel about it but the England boss did not feel that his team selection had any impact on their performance.
He added “That’s a similar team to the one which played against Spain in April.
“I think that was the first time that I have only made three changes, I played the same team because I wanted us to play with some consistency and rhythm.
“If I had made eight changes from the last game it might have been my fault.
“It was probably down to the pitch, camping and the fact that we are at the stage where we thought ‘We are nearly at the World Cup here’ and that has impacted on how we wanted to play.”
Some of England’s better players were their most experienced heads and Neville was quick to single out those players for praise.
“Our best three players on the pitch today were Karen Bardsley, Jill Scott and Karen Carney when she came on” said Neville.
“When they are on the pitch, they give the team a little bit of composure.
“We have got a lot of young players in there who are excitable and want to do the right things but I thought that the experienced players today were fantastic.”
England complete the ‘Road to France’ series with a fixture against New Zealand in Brighton next weekend.
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