All is calm on Weston front

Chelsea Weston may be on a high after a stunning rare goal in England's 3-0 opening-day victory against Sweden in Group B but she remains firmly rooted when it comes to any talk of the title, chastened by the experiences of 12 months ago.

First start
It is a year before that where it started in the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship for Weston, in the coastal town of Akranes in Iceland. With wind and rain billowing in from the sea, the girl from Worcester looked shaky as she lined up for her first start at this level, shielded only by the presence of Hope Powell as the senior England manager shouted a stream of encouragement to the young right-back. "In that first game against France I didn't think I was going to play, let alone start and when I did I was like, 'I don't really know what I'm doing'," admitted Weston. "But I got a lot of help and took that on board." Sufficiently so, in fact, to play her part in a surprise victory.

Collectors' item
Mo Marley's team went on to contest the final that year, pushing favourites Germany hard before running out of steam in extra time, losing 4-2. "After competing for 120 minutes and then losing it was hard watching them getting the trophy," the Doncaster Rovers Belles LFC defender said. "But failing to even reach the semi-finals last year was worse and makes me more determined here." Ultimately Sweden pipped them to the post 12 months ago, but England exacted a measure of revenge in Minsk on Monday, Weston scoring only her second goal in nearly 30 appearances at this level to cap a 3-0 win. "It was a bit of a mad one because I don't really score," she admitted. "It was a set-piece and they put all their players back so it was set up and I hit it, crossbar and in ... I only score fluky goals really."

New role
Weston perhaps does herself a disservice, for it was her strong all-round ability that led to Belles manager John Buckley describing her capture as "a major coup" when she joined from Birmingham City LFC last June. The player herself acknowledges the importance of the move in her development and, now 19 and the oldest member of the England squad, she bears little resemblance to the sodden youngster in Akranes. "The younger ones look to me for experience," she said. "What I say to some of them is that we got to the final as underdogs, which was really good, and the year after everyone went in thinking 'Yeah, we're going to win it' and we didn't even get out of the group stages. The Sweden win was obviously a good start this time around and we played well but we still have another gear to go up – Norway's going to be hard, Iceland's going to be hard. This year we really need to take every game as it comes."