Mo Marley's England drew 1-1 with Holland last night after a last-gasp equaliser from Jill Scott

Holland 1-1 England

International Women's U19 Friendly
SC Woerden FC
29 March 2006

Mo Marley's England drew 1-1 with Holland last night at SC Woerden after a last-gasp equaliser from Jill Scott, but were left frustrated by a number of contentious refereeing decisions.

Next month the squad will travel to Romania to play three games in the second qualifying stage for the 2006 UEFA European Women's U19 Championship and Fulham's Kelly Lawrence told TheFA.com that the side were heartened, if a little frustrated by last night's performance.

"This game was very good preparation for next month" said Kelly, "and after only one and a half days together, we were very happy with the performance.

"Mo told us at the end that we sometimes need to be more direct and definitely more clinical with our finishing, but we're all very excited now about the games coming up, as we want to qualify once more for the Finals, in Switzerland."

The Dutch went ahead through Dominqiue Vugts on 25 minutes, although Lawrence herself was fouled in the build-up to the goal.

"I was fouled near the touchline and the Assistant Referee flagged, but the referee allowed play to continue" added Kelly.

Just before half-time, the young Lions thought they were going to have a chance to restore parity when Gemma Davison was taken out in the penalty area after a strong run, but to their collective dismay, the referee waved play on.
Sian Larkin came on at half-time for Fulham's Dunia Susi after a heavy challenge sent the young striker to hospital for x-rays. Thankfully there was no break detected.

England's luck didn't get any better in the second half when Jill Scott netted, but despite two Dutch defenders being on the goal line, the goal was ruled out for offside.

To their credit, Marley's side continued to push forward, as the Dutch increasingly put players behind the ball to protect their lead, and with just seconds left on the clock, Sunderland's Jill Scott took a long ball from Michelle Evans in her path, and swept in a sweet half-volley from 6 yards to give England a deserved equaliser.

England: Carly Telford, Stephanie Houghton, Michelle Evans, Heather Scheuber, Fern Whelan, Kelly Lawrence, Dunia Susi (Sian Larkin, 46mins), Jill Scott (c), Gemma Davidson (Dani Buet), Lianne Sanderson, Jessica Clarke (Dani Bird, 75mins)