Phil Neville said England’s second-half display against Wales was the best he’d seen from his team as they qualified for next summer’s World Cup.
Toni Duggan, Jill Scott and Nikita Parris scored a goal apiece in a devastating 12-minute spell after the break to help the Lionesses book their place at the finals for the fourth time in succession.
Neville said: “I wanted to see my players play to the best of their ability and I saw that in the second half.
“In that period we executed the game plan perfectly, it worked a treat.
“The one, two-touch passing, switching the ball from side to side, the control - for 30 minutes in that second half it was the best performance since I took over.
“It was a team that was enjoying playing football and that is what I want to see.”
Neville had his gameplan in mind since the 3-1 win over Russia in June and he was delighted that his players were able to execute it in the second half.
Wales hadn’t conceded a goal in qualifying until Duggan’s 57th-minute intervention in Newport – and it was all down to perseverance.
Neville added: “The plan was to sustain attack after attack.
“Like a boxer on the ropes they're eventually going to go down, and that's what happened.
“I've been on both sides of that in my career and we eventually saw the fatigue in the Welsh players' legs.
“But Wales deserve massive respect because they took us probably to a place where this England team has never been, and that's to the very last game.”
England will complete their qualifying campaign in Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
