TV chaos overshadows White’s hat-trick heroics
Having waited nearly a year to watch England Women play an international match, many BBC viewers bemoaned the poor quality of the live television coverage, as the Lionesses cruised to victory over Northern Ireland.
Yesterday’s game was played at England’s St George’s Park training base, with supporters relying on BBC Red Button and iplayer coverage. However, the main camera covering the action wobbled in high winds for much of the game.
The feed also suffered momentary signal glitches early in the first half, bringing a “no input signal” message on to the screen a splitsecond before Ellen White scored the second of her three goals.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Challenging high winds and the exposed nature of the training pitch at St George’s Park contributed to difficulties in the remote production of today’s game.”
The behind-closed-doors match made for a relatively low-key occasion for veteran midfielder Jill Scott’s 150th cap. The 34-year-old, wearing the captain’s armband, was her usual energetic self in midfield and showed her class with a neat assist for White’s third, just after half-time.
That came after White had opened the scoring early in the first half, after being gifted possession just inside the area and providing a clinical, low finish into the bottom corner. She doubled her tally with a header from Lucy Bronze’s cross and Bronze herself then tapped home Lauren Hemp’s left-wing cross to make it 3-0.
White’s third, a fierce finish after Scott’s low pass into the box, took her England goal tally to 39, seven behind Kelly Smith’s record.
Hege Riise, taking interim charge of England for the first time,
included six uncapped players on the bench, and four of them came on for their senior international debuts, with Manchester United’s Ella Toone joined by Everton keeper Sandy Maciver, Arsenal defender Lotte Wubben-moy and in-form Bristol City striker Ebony Salmon.
Yet despite their inexperienced squad, England played with a swagger and could have won by a greater margin, with Rachel Daly turning home Bronze’s cross for the fifth goal before substitute Chloe Kelly was tugged in the box and Toone calmly netted from the penalty spot.
For Riise, who is taking charge of England until Holland manager Sarina Wiegman takes over in September, everything is about the Olympic Games this summer.
A decision will be made in the coming weeks as to whether she will be in charge of Team GB in Tokyo, but she says picking a squad of 18 will be tough.
“The competitiveness we have in the squad, the attitude, the energy that was there today, there’s a really good group of players we can select from,” Riise said. “It will be difficult to pick that squad.”