England Learning Disability Team beat Turkey in European Championship opener

England 9-0 Turkey
Sunday 10 June 2012
2012 INAS European Championship
Sweden

England's Learning Disability Team made an impressive start to their European Championship campaign with a convincing win over tournament debutants Turkey.

The squad arrived full of confidence following their two day preparation camp and controlled the game from the opening whistle.

After hitting the side-netting twice in quick succession and then the crossbar, England went ahead from the penalty spot. The Turkish goalkeeper was sent off for bringing down Lerone Plummer and Chris McGinty coolly slotted home from the spot.

Lerone Plummer then got the first of the game with a neat finish after side-stepping the goalkeeper before McGinty scored his second, latching onto a superb cross-field ball by Matt Edwards.

Leading 3-0 at the break, the Three Lions extended their lead early in the second half as Lerone Plummer got his second and he completed his hat-trick just five minutes later.

England were dominating possession and continued to create chances although the finish was just lacking. However, McGinty was on hand to despatch a well-worked move for his hat-trick and make the score 6-0.

With the game safe, England made a handful of changes to freshen things up and the impact was immediate.

Plummer got himself another to take his tally to four for the match with a superb individual effort, chipping the ball of the advancing goalkeeper from a tight angle.

It was then the turn of the substitutes as Babak Khorrami scored to make it eight before a brilliant individual weaving move by George Simmons rounded off the scoring in the 90th minute.

Head Coach Chris Dowhan told TheFA.com: “It is always good to make a solid start in tournament competitions and we have done that today. We played well in patches although we know we can improve on today. Our aim now is to refocus on tomorrow’s game against Sweden and put ourselves in a strong position to qualify from the group”.

England
K Ginever, J Walne, C Allen (S Reid), M Edwards, A Bilal, C McGinty, L Plummer, G Chukwuma, R Greenidge (G Simmons), R Gallagher, S Mbarouk (B Khorrami)

Goals C McGinty (29 p, 39, 66), L Plummer (37, 47, 53, 73), B Khorrami (84), G Simmons (90)