Hope demands more
Saturday, 05 March, 2011
National Coach has asked her players to improve approach to games.
Glenn Lavery in Cyprus
Following the 2-0 defeat to Scotland in the Cyprus Cup on Friday, England Women's National Coach Hope Powell has urged her players to improve their approach to matches they are 'expected to win'.
A goal apiece for Arsenal pair Kim Little and Jennifer Beattie did the damage and gave the Scots their first victory over England in 17 attempts.
The stats suggest that England were the overwhelming favourites in Nicosia and Powell has now asked for a response from her charges, ahead of Monday's game against Canada.
"Some of our players have to look at their performance," she said. "This game answered a few questions for me, both positively and negatively.
"Now we need to look at our approach to games like this - games we are expected to win. We need to manage them better because our performance wasn't good enough.
"We made some changes to the team (that beat Italy on Wednesday), but we were still expected to beat them and the players that played will be disappointed."
Despite her frustration at both the result and her team's performance, Powell was quick to congratulate Scotland on the victory.
"You have to give Scotland credit," she said. "They played well. They defended very well and made it difficult.
"They've got some really good youngsters coming through and it was a good test for us."