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England go joint top of group

Women's Football News 21 May 2010

MALTA 0 ENGLAND 6 (F.White 7, Smith 15, Williams 29,82, Clarke 56, E.White 67)
England maintained their 100 per cent World Cup qualifying record with a comfortable victory that could have been more emphatic with sharper finishing.

Hope Powell's team started their campaign with an 8-0 home win against the Maltese and it was no more difficult for them against the same opponents in Ta'Qali.

Leeds Carnegie striker Ellen White was given her first senior start up front as was Claire Rafferty at full back in an otherwise unchanged starting line up from that which beat Spain 1-0 in the previous qualifier last month.

As well as putting her name on the scoresheet striker White, making her first senior start, twice hit the woodwork with the first of her near misses arriving after just six minutes.

Sixty seconds later England took the lead through Faye White, the captain climbing to head home left winger Rachel Yankey's cross.

Yankey then provided the 15th minute pass for striker Kelly Smith to volley in a six yard shot for the second goal.

The one-way traffic continued but it was not until just before the half hour that goal number three arrived via midfielder Fara Williams' superbly struck 20-yard drive.

Either side of half time, Ellen White and right winger Jess Clarke missed good chances to stretch the lead even further.

However Clarke made amends in the 56th minute, sidefooting the ball into the roof of the net from Smith's neat pull back.

Ellen White did likewise in some style eleven minutes later, a mazy run taking her past six defenders before sliding the ball in from 10 yards.

Williams completed the scoring with her second goal of the afternoon, a close range shot from a cross by substitute Karen Carney.

The win has put England level with Spain at the top of Group Five and with a game in hand on the Spaniards, who they meet next month in the sixth of their eight qualifiers.

Malta: Sharon Constantino, Gabriela Zahra (sub Emma Xuereb 71mins), Chantal Marie Fenech (sub Kathleen Saliba 90mins), Natasha Pace, Rebecca D'Agostino, Dorianne Theuma, Ylenia Carabott, Rachel Cuschieri, Rebecca Chircop, Kimberly Parnis, Corissa Vella (sub Mandy Debono 63mins). Subs not used: Michelle Nicole Zahra, Antoinette Sammut, Sherianne Zammit, Maria Azzopardi.

England: Rachel Brown, Alex Scott (sub Dunia Susi 45mins), Claire Rafferty, Katie Chapman, Faye White (sub Natasha Dowie 74mins), Casey Stoney, Jess Clarke, Fara Williams, Ellen White, Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey (sub Karen Carney 64mins). Subs not used: Siobhan Chamberlain, Jill Scott, Laura Bassett, Rachel Unitt.