Mo Marley insisted “nothing has changed” following England’s World Cup draw with Mexico in Moncton.
Her side were deservedly in front at the break, thanks to a wonder strike from Sunderland’s Beth Mead.
The Young Lions dominated possession in the first half but couldn’t find more than one goal to show for it. The Mexicans were the better side after the interval and they equalised through Fabiola Ibarra.
England 1-1 Mexico
FIFA Women's U20 World Cup
Group C
Saturday 9 August 2014
Moncton Stadium, Canada
England now have two points from their opening two games at the FIFA Women's U20 World Cup, and with Nigeria beating South Korea 2-1 in the other game in Group C Marley knows her side will probably have to win their final match, against Nigeria, to have any hope of reaching the quarter finals.
She said: “We’re disappointed that we haven’t got more from our first two games but any point in a World Cup is still a valuable point.
“Nothing changes in terms of what we do. It’s a long-term plan, it’s not one game in isolation. We have said to the players it’s about how we perform over the course of the tournament.
“The longer you are in a competition the more crucial the games become. We try to win every game so in that respect nothing has changed.”
Marley was relatively satisfied with England’s opening 45 minutes and she believes her side grew into the game the longer the half went on.
Mexico came out strongly straight from the restart, pressing the England backline until they finally got their equaliser in the 71st minute.
Marley said she will need to analyse the game properly over the next few days, but she knows her side have things they can work on ahead of the Nigeria game next week.
She added: “We’ve got some things to tidy up on, for sure. The players know that. The players are disappointed with what we would call the basics.
“We pride ourselves on keeping possession, certainly over the last 18 months, and we know there was a significant shortfall in that respect in the second half.
“We felt that we were in control at half-time. We knew they would come out strongly in the second half but there is a difference between identifying it and responding to it.
“Maybe we dropped too deep and the players’ mindset was more focused on keeping hold of what we had rather than trying to build on our lead.
“We tried to make changes, we tried to be more open and direct but it boils down to what you do with the ball and we will be disappointed by our possession stats in the second half.”
