Kirby says England Lionesses will have to be at their best against Spain

Lionesses star Fran Kirby insists her England teammates will need to be surgical in precision when they face Spain at Swindon’s County Ground in the second of their four World Cup warm-up games.

The 25-year-old terrorised Spain with a goal in the first minute of their group stage meeting at Euro 2017, with Jodie Taylor also on the scoresheet in the 2-0 win.

Spain, notorious for their style of possession football, barely allowed England a touch in that game despite the result, with Kirby expecting another tough test in their World Cup preparation.

But the Chelsea striker will have to take on a watching brief this time around, ruled out due to knee pain which requires careful management.

“The last Spain game was all a bit of a blur actually because I scored, and it was only after about 20 seconds so for the rest of the game I was just running around chasing them,” said Kirby.

“They had the ball for most of the game, but we knew that we weren’t going to have much possession that game and we knew that we would have to take our chances when we got them.

“I think I was more surprised than anyone else when I scored to be honest, but it was a real experience to be part of a team that didn’t have much possession of the ball and it was all about hard work and grinding out the result.

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“I can imagine this time around it is probably going to be very similar from them, but we have changed the way that we play, and we want to play a little bit more now.

“I still think that they are top quality and we are going to have to take our chances just as much now as we did then.”

England were ultimately undone in the semi-finals of that competition, crashing out to eventual champions, the Netherlands, with a 3-0 defeat in Enschede.

Since then Phil Neville has been appointed Head Coach and has led the Lionesses to third spot in the FIFA world rankings with just USA and Germany ahead of them.

There’s also been a positive transition in attendances too, with England’s next World Cup warm-up game against Canada in Manchester sold-out and the Spain clash in Swindon heading much the same way.

Progress and form have materialised at exactly the right time with the World Cup just months away and Kirby believes this could pave the way for success this time around.

“Before, we perhaps lacked that final bit of quality and when you come up against it, top teams know what you are going to do,” she said.

“We now have different systems, or we can completely change the personnel and I think that just shows the belief that Phil Neville has in this team.

“We have come a long way in terms of confidence on the pitch, how we are playing and how we feel about each other – we want to give each other 100 per cent and that is going to be very important going into these last few games before the World Cup.”

• England Women host Spain in a ‘Road to France’ international on Tuesday, 9 April at Swindon Town FC, KO 7pm. Tickets available at £10/£1 from www.thefa.com/lionessestickets

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