Unitt ensures English success
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Article summary
Netherlands 0-1 England Left-back Rachel Unitt scored as England won for the second time in four days.
Article body
Rachel Unitt scored her first international goal as England's decent run continued with a 1-0 win against Netherlands in Tuitjenhorn last night.
Below-par performance
The Everton LFC left-back struck midway through the second half to earn England their second win in four days against their Dutch hosts. The victory was the 2005 UEFA European Women's Championship hosts' seventh in ten games, but a poor first-half display left manager Hope Powell demanding improvement.
'We have to learn'
"We didn't start too badly but we fell away," she said. "We have to learn to keep the momentum going because if we play like that in the first half against the top teams in Europe at EURO 2005 we'll be beaten." Katie Chapman and Kristy Moore both produced good long-range efforts as England opened the game promisingly, but a series of defensive errors then handed the home side a number of chances.
Dutch ascendancy
Midfield player Marjan Brouwer hit the post from close range just after the quarter-hour mark when she was teed up by Manon Melis, and the striker herself missed a gilt-edged opportunity seven minutes later following a defensive mix-up, failing to test debutante goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain.
Unitt goal
Powell made five changes at half-time and the substitutes gave England fresh impetus as the home side struggled to stay in touch. Chapman had a goalbound shot cleared off the line on 53 minutes to set the tone, though it was 14 minutes later before Unitt finally broke the deadlock. After cutting in from the left, she hit a low drive from 20 metres that crept just inside the far post to score her first goal in 36 international games.
'Must do better'
Twelve minutes from time midfielder Fara Williams almost doubled the advantage when she hit the crossbar, but in the end the visitors had to settle for 1-0. "We were 100 times better in the second half, but we still weren't good enough," Powell said. "As far as the team performance is concerned we'll have to do much better than that if we want to do well at EURO 2005." The Netherlands, meanwhile, cannot qualify for the tournament, after they failed to finish in the top two of Group B.
