Fine England run continues against Norway

England 3-0 Norway
England continued their excellent run of form ahead of UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ with a comfortable defeat of Norway in front of nearly 5,000 fans in Shrewsbury.

Williams double
Fara Williams scored in each half, either side of Lindsay Johnson's first international goal, to ensure England built on last month's victory in the Cyprus Women's Cup. For Norway, though, the result was their fifth defeat in six 2009 fixtures.

First-half goals
Williams went close twice early on from distance, and although Ingvild Isaksen shot just wide at the other end, England were ahead on 18 minutes. Jill Scott sent Karen Carney clear on the wing and her cross was turned in at the near post by Williams. Both teams were pressing hard, Solveig Gulbrandsen curling an effort just off target for Norway, but six minutes from the break it was 2-0 when Johnson, continuing in defence due to captain Faye White's continued injury absence, headed in a Carney centre.

Clincher
Even before half-time Eniola Aluko had a shot cleared off the Norway line, and early in the second period Sue Smith had two strikes at goal and Williams bent a free-kick wide. The midfielder added to the scoreline with nine minutes left with a long-range shot, to keep England in good spirit as they prepare to welcome Iceland and Denmark for further friendlies in July before their UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ campaign in Finland begins against Italy on 25 August, with Russia and Sweden also waiting in Group C.

Powell pleased
"We won comfortably and to score three goals against a team that's ranked highly in the world will be good for confidence," said England manager Hope Powell. "It was very physical and we tired towards the end, but we coped with it well and in patches we did very well. Norway have always caused us problems, so to win like that – quite comfortably towards the end – shows how far we've come and progressed. Now we've got to keep the momentum, the belief and the confidence going towards the EURO finals."

Norway concern
Norway's fixtures in Finland begin with a rematch against the side that beat them 3-1 in the 2005 final in England – Germany – and coach Bjarne Berntsen said: "We must improve if we are to perform well and get results in the European finals. England are one of the medal candidates, but today I think there was a big gap. We were very inaccurate and lost the ball too much. The positive is that we showed a lot of determination."