Eniola Aluko maintained her impressive scoring streak after her goal set England on their way to a 3-0 World Cup qualifying win in Belarus on Saturday.
The Chelsea striker latched onto Fara Williams’ 30th-minute through ball and dinked a shot over Ina Batsianouskaya to break the deadlock in Minsk with her eighth strike of the campaign.
Steph Houghton and Lucy Bronze completed the scoring to seal the Three Lions’ seventh straight victory on the road to Canada 2015.
Belarus 0-3 England
FIFA Women's World Cup 2015
Group 6 qualifier
Saturday 14 June 2014
Traktor Stadium, Minsk
Aluko said: “It was a really big objective of mine to start getting on the scoresheet for England.
“To look on the scoresheet and see your name on there is obviously really rewarding, something that motivates me to keep doing better.
“Hopefully I can keep getting in the starting line-ups, getting on the scoresheet and doing my best for the team.”
The 27-year-old was paired with Liverpool striker Natasha Dowie up front for the second game in succession.
Last time out they each scored a brace as Mark Sampson’s side saw off Ukraine in Shrewsbury.
Highlighs: Belarus 0-3 England
And Aluko is relishing the partnership with her former Charlton Athletic club mate.
She added: “It’s nice to play with Natasha again, we played together at Charlton many years back and scored a lot of goals.
“It’s nice to play in a [front] two [again]. That’s something I haven’t done for England in ten years. I’m blessed to have the opportunity to play as a forward in a two and hopefully we can keep improving.”
Aluko continued: “It was good to get the win and another clean sheet. It wasn’t the best performance, Belarus made it difficult for us at times, but we did what we needed to do and got the three points.
“Belarus played out from the back and made us press them and try and win the ball back higher up.
“They are a tidy team and they made it difficult for us so it’s certainly nice to walk away from here with three points.”
England require four points from their final three qualifiers to book their spot at next summer’s World Cup finals.
They take on Ukraine in Lviv on Thursday, followed by a trip to Wales in August and a final qualifier in Montenegro in September.
