England Women's U17s 5-0 Republic of Ireland

Tuesday 02 May 2017

England opened their UEFA European Women’s U17 Championship finals campaign with a comfortable 5-0 dismissal of Republic of Ireland.

John Griffiths led the Young Lionesses to a third-place finish at last year’s tournament – and this year’s intake made the perfect start in Czech Republic.

Sunderland defender Poppy Pattinson opened the scoring after just nine minutes, but the game was really put to bed just before half-time.

Manchester City’s Beth O’Donnell doubled the lead before Arsenal forward Jessica Ngunga made it 3-0 on 38 minutes.

Captain Lauren Hemp added a fourth almost immediately after the restart while Chelsea’s Nicole Douglas completed the scoring on 64 minutes.

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England’s second group match is against Netherlands, who defeated Norway 3-1, on Friday.

England: 1 Hannah Hampton (Birmingham City), 3 Poppy Pattinson (Sunderland), 5 Shannon Cooke (Arsenal), 6 Esme Morgan (Manchester City), 7 Nicole Douglas (Chelsea), 10 Emily Syme (Bristol City), 11 Lauren Hemp (capt; Bristol City), 12 Grace Neville (Millwall), 14 Amy Rodgers (Liverpool), 17 Jessica Ngunga (Arsenal), 18 Beth O’Donnell (Manchester City).

Substitutes: 13 Emily Ramsey (Manchester United) for Hampton 49, 16 Ella Rutherford (Millwall) for Hemp 54, 15 Olivia Smith (Chelsea) for Morgan 65.

Substitutes not used: 2 Meg Boydell (Liverpool), 8 Miri Taylor (Chelsea), 9 Gabby Ravenscroft (Oxford United).

Goals: Pattinson 9, O’Donnell 36, Ngunga 38, Hemp 41, Douglas 64.

Head coach: John Griffiths

By Glenn Lavery

England WU17s 5-0 Republic of Ireland