England opened the Euros with a fantastic 10-0 victory over France.
England 10-0 France
INAS-FID European Championship
Sport City, Manchester
20 July
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England's Learning Disability side completely dominated their opening game of the INAS-FID European Championship with a 10-0 demolition of France in Manchester this afternoon.
After an opening ceremony around the Athletics Track at Sport City, England raced out of the traps, playing into a strong wind.
Danny Williams and Lele Bajada both tested French 'keeper Thierry Legrall in the opening five minutes after some confident passing football, and after nine minutes The Three Lions took the lead.
Royce Greenidge did the damage down the left hand side and Lele Bajada nipped in to slot the ball home from six yards.
England continued to pile on the pressure. Ronnie Watson curled a beautiful shot that was pushed away at full stretch, and from the resulting corner, George Chukwuma narrowly missed the target from Frank Curley's knockdown.
Greenidge drilled a shot against a post after a slick move involving Chukwuma and Watson after quarter of an hour, before skipper Watson doubled the lead on 16 minutes.
Bajada picked up the ball down the right, unselfishly squared the ball to Watson, and his looped flick dropped just underneath the bar.
The lively Bajada extended England's lead on 25 minutes, nodding down Chukwuma's long ball, rounding the 'keeper before coolly slotting home to make it 3-0.
As the French struggled to get a foothold in the game a couple of late challenges went in on Watson, with Walid Sagnes finally going into the book ten minutes before half-time.
With four minutes until the half-time break, England bagged their fourth of a totally dominant 45 minutes.
Danny Williams' inswinging left hand corner drifted in on the wind, and under pressure from Bajada, Legrall could only push the ball into his own net, to make it England 4-0 France.
At half-time England Head Coach Alan Gillett replaced Royce Greenidge with Dean Earle, whilst France made two changes, including their 'keeper.
With the wind now at their backs, it was still all England and they stretched their lead even further with two goals in two minutes.
First a move which involved Watson, Earle and Williams ended with George Chukwuma firing into the top right hand corner for England's fifth, before Bajada sealed his hat-trick, nutmegging a French defender with his finish, after Frank Curley had waltzed along the by-line.
French heads were noticeably dropping and England were finding acres of space down the right hand side. It was from that side that The Three Lions made it 7-0. Scott Curley got wide, floated a perfect cross to Watson who headed easily past Albert Marie for his second of the afternoon.
With fifteen minutes to go England made it 8-0. Dean Earle got through one on one with the 'keeper and after his shot was saved, Watson's corner from the left was flicked home by Chukwuma at the near post.
With just two minutes to go, Frank Curley moved up from the centre of defence to show a great display of twinkle toes, dancing through the French defence before nonchantly wrong-footing the 'keeper to make it 9-0. And with the final whistle about to blow, skipper Ronnie Watson completed the scoring, rifling in his third and England's tenth to get their European Championship campaign off to a flier.
England
1 Wes Jackman, 2 Danny Cole, 4 Junior Bilal, 5 Frank Curley, 6 Grant Smith, 7 Scott Curley, 10 Ronnie Watson, 11 Danny Williams (3 Craig Barrett, 66) 12 George Chukwuma, 16 Lele Bajada, 20 Royce Greenidge (9 Dean Earle, 46)
Substitutes not used 8 Isdain Ali, 13 Kevin Ginever, 14 Matt Edwards, 19 Chris Kempsley
France
1 Thierry Legrall (16 Albert Marei, 46) 2 Ancouba Hadhurina, 5 Christopher Derre, 6 Emmanuel Veret (4 Christopher Vidal, 82) 7 Karim Taoussart, 8 Yannick Cabannes, 9 Maikel Raphael, 10 Jonathan Bouzeboudja, 11 Johnny Fouache, 12 Kevin Frainckart (3 Jerome Jolle) 13 Walid Sagnes