England 2-1 Switzerland

Under-17 Women's International Friendly
Thursday 27 October 2005
Woking FC

Ellen White scored both of the goals as England's U17s gained a hard working victory from a very open international against Switzerland on Thursday.

The Chelsea striker opened the scoring early on after Lizzy Wicks made a weaving run into the area. Her shot was parried by a diving Jennifer Oehrli and White was left with a simple tap-in.

Switzerland should really have been level on 17 minutes after the England defence was caught square by a long ball from Marie-Andrea Egli. Ramona Bachmann hesitated in taking her shot and this allowed Helen Alderson to come off her line and make a good smothering save.

England Coach Jane Ebbage made two changes at the break, Remi Allen coming into midfield with Sophie Walton slotting alongside Sophie Bradley in the centre of defence, whilst Olivia Thackray played on the left with Penny Andrea reverting to right back.

Allen was quickly involved when diverting a header just wide from a looping Lizzie Edwards cross and the Leicester City midfielder also did well with a 25-yard shot which was narrowly off target.

The lively Bachmann was still proving to be a handful for the England defence and one speedy run down the left was finally ended when she was crowded out by Andrea.

With Bradley, England immediately went on the counter-attack with Allen sliding a neat pass into the path of substitute Lindsey Shaw, who clipped her shot over Oehrli but wide of the far post.

England were given another glorious chance to tighten their grip on the game as Shaw flicked on for White to run through on goal. She rounded Oehrli but, with the Swiss defence closing in on her, she sent her left foot shot into the side netting.

England were made to pay for their missed chances. Maglia's clipped pass found Brunner who shrugged off Andrea's challenge before planting her shot past Alderson and into the corner of the net for the equaliser.

It could have been worse a few minutes later, Flaherty made a fine tackle on Maglia but the loose ball ran to Bachmann in front of goal and it took a superb point-blank save from Alderson to keep her side on level terms.

However this time it was England's turn to make the Swiss pay as Andrea's long ball out of defence ran through to White and this time the striker made no mistake with a clinical finish into the corner for her second goal.

England needed to keep their concentration during injury time but there were no more scares and their reward was a hard earned win.

England: Helen Alderson, Lizzy Wicks (Remi Allen, 41), Gilly Flaherty, Sophie Walton, Sophie Bradley, Faye McCoy (Olivia Thackray, 41), Jessica Clarke (Emily Morphitis, 77), Lizzie Edwards, Kate Longhurst (Lindsey Shaw, 52), Ellen White, Penny Andrea (Carla Tomkins, 80).
Subs: Melissa Sutcliffe, Natalie Poole.

Goals: Ellen White 6, 76

Switzerland: Jennifer Oehrli, Sandra Betschart, Nicole Remund (Camille Raemy, 41), Francesca Stillhard, Marie Andrea Egli, Rahel Graf, Lucienne Brunner, Ana Crnogorevic (Konstantina Frangouli, 40), Veronica Maglia, Janine Stucki, Ramona Bachmann.
Subs: Patricia Gsell, Isabelle Weber, Steffi Lehmann, Caroline Muller, Jasmine Imboden.

Goals: Brunner 69