Friday Ramble: Lessons learned

England vs Brazil took up most of my week as the first women's Finalissima took place at Wembley, plus I answer your questions...

England won the first Women’s Finalissima at Wembley. Image: Paul Terry / Sportimage

I’ll be honest, I was a bit bored during the first half of England vs Brazil. England passed and passed, as they do, dominating possession, while Brazil sat off and let it happen.

The second half though saw England truly tested, and I enjoyed that, even if some of my colleagues in the press box didn’t enjoy the rewrites of on the whistle match reports when Andressa equalised in the 93rd minute!

It became a really pulsating game though and one England needed, in front of 83k fans at Wembley, just 4k short of the Euro 2022 final against Germany last year.

I still think there are chinks in England’s armour, particularly at the back, which were to an extent exposed by Spain last summer, and Sweden too had it not been for the exploits of Mary Earps in goal to save her side.

What I did enjoy though was the train journey down to London - bar the 30 minute delay for a sheep on the track - because it was all about England vs Brazil.

I’ve travelled around the country on trains to many England games since my first in 2015, and quite often you wouldn’t hear a peep about an England game from those around you.

It felt like everyone sat within reach of me was going to this game. Some made it obvious, with their England shirts and Euro 2022 backpacks, while others were in plain clothes but could be heard discussing both the game and their hotel arrangements.

How good is that? Women’s football has come so far, but so often it’s the little things that make you realise how much it’s growing.

Australia should be another interesting test. I know they’ve just lost to Scotland but they rested a few key players and are in good form under a coach I really like in Tony Gustavsson.

Spain’s result caught my eye too, beating Norway 4-2. Given they are still without 15 senior players, they are still plodding along nicely, while Norway, as I mentioned in a previous column, still look to have some serious work to do.

Elsewhere, I had a really nice moment this week off the back of my interview with Tabitha Chawinga, who I massively enjoyed speaking to. Someone too we hear from too rarely for how talented she is and establishing herself nicely in Europe with Inter Milan.

Anyway, I got a random DM off someone saying they played against her in Sweden’s third division when she first arrived in Europe and thanked me for doing an interview with her, which I thought was nice!

In other business, this Ramble should have been out a couple of hours ago, but life as a writer never stops, not even at 6pm on a Bank Holiday!

I went for a quick run when I got back from London. I live in a quiet area with a lot of green space and it was a nice evening, safe in the knowledge work was done for the day.

But no, I came back to a message at 5:40pm tipping me off Brighton would announce their new head coach at 6pm, and it turned out to be ex-London City Lionesses gaffer Melissa Phillips.

She’d only been in LA with Angel City two months, she may not even have unpacked! It will be interesting though. It’s a tough ask to hit the ground running and keep a team up with less than two months of the season to go when you’ve never met your squad until now.

Phillips was well liked and well respected at London City though and did a fantastic job to get them to where they are, so maybe this was an appointment that at best keeps them safe, and at worst Brighton know they have someone proven in the Championship who should be well placed to bring them back up should they not survive.

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Answering your Questions

Matt Moon - What do you think the future looks like for Blackburn Rovers now that Gemma Donnelly has left by mutual agreement?

I think a lot of that will depend on the club. Blackburn have actually had a solid season at times despite where they are in the table, and they’ve always proven one of the tougher teams to beat in my experience at Sheffield United.

Matt Bee was already brought in as first team head coach last year so there may not need to be much of a transition, but like at SUFC, Blackburn are one of the few part-time sides left and while that’s the case, there’s only so much any coach can do and the four part-time sides making up the bottom four in the Championship right now is evidence of that.

Michael Scoates - How do players communicate with each other and dugouts when in situations like Camp Nou, Wembley etc?

I don’t think sometimes it’s as hard as people think. Probably a little bit more complicated, but word will spread. We often see coaches send on notes which get passed around from player to player, or a coach will call over the nearest player in ear-shot who will then pass messages on to whoever necessary.

I see Mia Enderby currently doing bits on the pitch, does she bleed Blades yet or do you think she'll move onto more lucrative things?

Ha. Even if I could tell you, I don’t know. She’s doing well, she’s got some way to go, but she’s an exciting talent. I know clubs have been watching her, but that’s nothing new, clubs are watching all young talents.

Grumpy Dad - Nottingham Forest are 2 wins away from sewing up the Northern Premier Title. In the South, it appears to be between Oxford and Ipswich. Any thoughts on who will make the jump into the Championship?

I’ll be honest, I’m more familiar with the northern league being a) northern based b) working for Sheffield United and c) having actually played Forest in the FA Cup this season.

They were a good team and I know a few of their players who have either been with us in the past, been on trial or from players we did sign who speak about them. Ipswich I know have a good side from doing bits with them in the past and they were unlucky to be denied promotion during the COVID-19 period.

Given a northern team has gone down, it would be good for balance if it was a northern team given it’s already becoming more and more a southern league after Southampton came up last season.

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Other Business

I went back on the 3Lions podcast this week to preview the Brazil and Australia games and discuss where the Lionesses are at in general.

If you fancy a listen, hit the link!

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What you missed and what comes next?

Only one big interview this week with the last few days taken up by coverage of the England vs Brazil game, but Tuesday’s piece with Inter Milan striker Tabitha Chawinga is already one of the most popular on the site.

I also looked at some decisive blows in the WSL title race off the back of last weekend.

Consider a paid subscription to get FULL access to the whole site. Substack is fully dependent on the WFC community, that's how this works, and the more people who pay, the better this can become and hopefully I can continue to provide you, the readers, with genuinely unique and in-depth women's football content.

Next week will be somewhat back to normal as I can’t attend England vs Australia due to other commitments, but will as ever be thorough coverage of the game, plus an interview with goalkeeper Chelsea Ashurst, English-born but has made a career for herself in Spain.

I’ve got a couple of really nice, big features planned for the next few weeks too!

I'll also be launching a new weekly column (a week later than planned!)