England return to winning ways as they defeat Australia in Derby | OneFootball

England returned to winning ways as they defeated Australia 3-0 in the second game of the ‘Homecoming Series’ at Pride Park in Derby this evening.

The Lionesses went into the game hoping to bounce back from Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Brazil and they managed to do just that thanks to goals from Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze and Georgia Stanway.

England started brightly and Alessia Russo tried to pick out Beever-Jones in the middle, but the ball went just wide of goal. Beever-Jones then found the back of the net after getting on the end of a through ball from Beth Mead, but the offside flag went up and the goal was chalked off.

Australia were then reduced to 10-players. Alanna Kennedy was shown a straight red card after pulling down Russo. Beever-Jones took the resulting free-kick and while her initial effort bounced off the Australian wall, the rebound fell back to her and she fired the ball into the top corner of the net.

Russo then found herself in the perfect spot, but her shot ended up going straight into the arms of Mackenzie Arnold before the CommBank Matildas almost levelled the scores. Sam Kerr tried to curl the ball into the net, but Hannah Hampton showed her reflexes and managed to keep the shot out.

England doubled their lead five minutes before the break. Keira Walsh slid the ball through to Ella Toone, who managed to pick out birthday girl Lucy Bronze and the full-back struck the ball into the net.

The Lionesses continued to search for further goals and Lucia Kendall had a perfect chance, but she was hunted down by Katrina Gorry before Stanway had a shot blocked by Arnold. Mead then delivered a perfect cross into the feet of Michelle Agyemang, but she couldn’t take advantage. The Brighton & Hove Albion loanee was soon stretchered off with what looked like a serious knee injury, somewhat spoiling the occasion.

England were awarded a penalty deep in second half stoppage time when Missy Bo Kearns was caught by Gorry. Stanway stepped up to take the spot kick and she slid the ball past Arnold to seal a 3-0 win.

England return to action in the November international window when they continue the ‘Homecoming Series’ with fixtures against China and Ghana.