England 0 France 5

The match started well with an even balance but after 13 minutes France went one up when a quick shot crossed the goal and pinged in off the post.

The French played their typical high-speed game with regular changes of players to maintain the energy. We rotated our players also but we had a very bad patch when some inexperience and some tiredness showed and three of our players took it in turns to make mistakes that cost us three more goals in the next 6 minutes, So, we were 4 – 0 down at half time.

The second half continued in the same style with the French taking a physical approach to every tackle especially on James and Brendan. This was sapping energy and we rested them to put pressure on in the last quater of the half. We had seven excellent opportunities on target in the final four minutes but the experience of Fabian Savreux, who knows Brendan too well from his time at St. Omer, kept us out.

It looked like the second half would finish without goals but the referee ignored a French high ball in our box presumably because he thought the advantage of a counter-attack would fall to us. It did not work out that way and the French took a simple goal with 30 seconds left.

It was a disappointment but we had our fair share of this match against the team that is ranked 6th in the World. France came into this match with fresh legs whereas our players had had the hard match against Spain the day before. We did it for 33 minutes and our new players are gaining the experience that will build the reliability of the team for the whole match and avoid mistakes that can cost us goals.