Pressure grows on Neville

ENGLAND were watched by the biggest crowed for women’s football ever recorded outside Wembley — although the result will have done little to carry the women’s game forward.

The 29,238 supporters who had descended on the Riverside — somewhat short of the 32,000 sell-out crowd billed — watched Phil Neville’s slide slump to another defeat. Worryingly for the England boss, the last time the Lionesses went five games without a win was when Hope Powell got the sack in August 2013 after 15-years in charge.

Defensive errors, conceding from crosses and poor decisionmaking in the final third have become a reoccurring theme in England’s recent displays. But Neville maintains his side are ‘working on it’.

He said: ‘We have worked on it all week. The players know about it, I know about it, 12 months ago or six months ago we weren’t getting punished for these incidents.

‘This is a wake-up call, we can have all the possession in the world but football is about clean sheets,’ he said.

‘It is something we want to stop straight away on Tuesday night and reverse the momentum. I’m not going to compromise on the football I want to play — it is my values, my philosophy and it is what the players want.’

Hometown hero Jordan Nobbs — one of eight players in Neville’s side who hail from the North East’s ‘hot bed of football’ — made her long awaited return in an England shirt some 10 months on from an ACL injury. Her Arsenal team-mate Beth Mead — born and raised in nearby Whitby — whipped in a string of exciting deliveries for England who should have profited multiple times inside 30 minutes.

But despite countless opportunities Neville’s side failed to break the deadlock by half time.

It took just four minutes after the restart for Brazil to take the lead. After turning Lyon’s Nikita Parris, Tamires lifted the ball into the box for Debinha to head her effort under Mary Earps, who should have done better.

Having hit their stride Brazil doubled their lead 20 minutes later. Debinha’s low cross from six yards out took a deflection off skipper Steph Houghton to loop over a desperate Earps.

Neville introduced Chelsea striker Beth England and it was the versatile 25-year old who provided the Lionesses with a lifeline 10 minutes from time. Houghton hit a long ball for England to head home her first senior goal.

It was all too little too late and Neville later said: ‘The challenge is to keep believing in what we are doing. I can take comfort from the way we performed.’