Davison delight at opening her account for the Lionesses

Thursday 09 Jun 2016
Gemma Davison (right) is congratulated by Jill Scott

Gemma Davison expressed a great sense of relief after registering her first two England goals.

The Chelsea forward opened her account in the 7-0 Euro qualifying win over Serbia on Tuesday which helped the Lionesses seal qualification to Netherlands 2017.

And having had to wait until her 12th cap to get off the mark, she bagged her second goal just five minutes later, in the opening moments of the second half.

Davison said: "It was really important that we won the game and I'm happy to have played my part in that.

"I needed to get on the scoresheet. I had been a bit frustrated that I hadn't been scoring goals in an England shirt.

"When the first goal went in it was a bit of personal relief.

"They're not usually the type of goals I get so I changed my game up a little bit.

"It just shows that hard work pays off. I was really happy to see that hit the back of the net."

It was England's second rout of Serbia in three days, following the 7-0 victory in Wycombe at the weekend, and, coupled with Tuesday's other results, it secured qualification to next summer's Euros.

Davison added: "I thought we moved to ball well. It was a different game to Saturday but we changed a few things and still scored seven so we have to be pleased with that.

"It was a great week. The team has been in good spirits and I think that showed in our performances."

Mark Sampson's side have two qualifiers remaining, against Estonia and Belgium in September, but have already progressed to the finals as at least one of the six best runners-up out of the eight groups.

By Glenn Lavery