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It took a while, but victory was ‘Sweet’ for Wiegman’s England

UNDER the floodlights with Sweet Caroline belting out over the PA system, you could feel the excitement building.

With less than three weeks until England begin their Euros campaign in a home tournament, it was also exactly what Serina Wiegman needed from her team.

It was a much-needed victory to start the momentum building towards that first game against Austria at Old Trafford on July 6 but also a time for the talking to stop and the football to take over.

Mind you, England took their time to get going and it took goals from two substitutes, Chloe Kelly and Rachel Daly, to finally put Wiegman’s team in charge at Molineux.

Until then, England laboured and you began to wonder whether there was some sort of curse in Wolverhampton as Gareth Southgate’s men failed to find the net in two games here and the women had similar problems.

But two days on from Southgate’s Hungary humiliation, the women look in much better shape – even if Wiegman will need some fine tuning against Holland next week at Elland Road before their final warm-up friendly in Switzerland.

England captain Leah Williamson also got in on the act as her shot was deflected in off unlucky Belgium keeper Nicky Evrard which seemed particularly timely. There has been so much talk about the omission of Steph Houghton, England’s long standing former captain, from the squad that it feels almost like a changing of the guard. Arsenal midfielder Williamson was outstanding throughout with her energy and drive while Lauren Hemp also impressed and England have strength in depth from the bench.

They will need it in a tournament that they are far from being favourites to win. But with home advantage on their side, if they can gain momentum in the next few weeks, then the whole nation might just be able to carry them a long way.

England will need to be better in front of goal though. Despite scoring 72 goals in Wiegman’s first 11 games in charge they were wasteful in the first half, managing 14 shots to two in a one-sided affair, but could not break the deadlock. Hemp went close, Ellen White was also denied while Williamson went closest but saw her clever chip cleared off the line.

Finally the goal came after 62 minutes and England needed a big slice of luck to break the deadlock.

Kelly cut in from the right edge of the box, flashed a left foot shot towards goal but it took a huge deflection off Belgium substitute Charlotte Tison and completely wrongfooted Evrard.

The next came four minutes later when Belgium failed to clear their lines, the ball pinged around the box and Daly sliced a shot into the top corner.

Belgium looked average and now they were in their place.

Williamson got in on the act after 83 minutes, her shot hitting the bar and then cannoning in off the back of Evrard.