England Women’s World Cup hopes rocked after shock New Zealand defeat
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ENGLAND'S WOMEN were narrowly beaten 1-0 by New Zealand at the AMEX - in their final warm up game before they head to the World Cup.
Sarah Gregorious scored early in the second-half to send Phil Neville's side to France on a sour note.
England went behind at the AMEX against the run of play when Gregorious - who had been non-existent in the game - pounced on a poor Alex Greenwood clearance.
The Football Ferns - led by Tom Sermanni - were recently thrashed 5-0 by USA - who are keenly fancied for the tournament - so the result will worry Neville and his team.
The ex-Manchester United man made ten changes from last week's 2-0 win over Denmark - and only goalscorer Nikita Parris kept her place.
But Neville will be worried as captain Steph Houghton and Champions League winning defender Lucy Bronze came back into the side.
In the last outing before their World Cup opener against Scotland on June 9, the Lionesses started the brighter and could have had a penalty before the clock hit ten minutes.
Jodie Taylor appeared to be brought down by New Zealand keeper Erin Nayler after the Kiwi had literally thrown possession away.
Taylor is currently on loan at Melbourne City and was causing all sorts of problems for the visitors defence early on but Nayler had the beating of her in the Kiwi goal.
The game was fairly one-sided until England keeper Carly Telford was forced to tip Betsy Hassett's effort just over the bar just before the break.
And that momentum carried into the second half for Sermanni's team as they stunned the home crowd just five minutes into the second-half.
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After some questionable defending from the hosts, Telford failed to hold a Rosie White strike and Gregorious was on hand to tap home from close range.
England pressed for the equaliser throughout the second-half with Birmingham's Lucy Staniforth coming the closest with a free-kick from the left that whistled just over.
Winger Karen Carney had a late effort saved after coming on as a sub but New Zealand's defending will have impressed the 20,076 crowd - and worried Neville - as the visitors held on for the win.
