[Stable Lad]

The day has dawned.  

It's a tournament we've been looking forwards to in our house for quite some time. I'm sure the same is true for many others, though I appreciate not all.  Hopefully come the last kick there will be a few more folk who start to show an interest in the women's game.

England start with a full squad and excellent preparation which is all you can hope for.  Can we win it?  Yes, but it's a long and winding road before the final and quite a few others fancy their chances too.  The weight of expectation brings its own pressure and whoever we get post the group stage (we really ought to get out of our group) is going to be tough.

Wishing good luck and happy memories to a few folk who may well read the CoF who are making the trip to Manchester tonight.  Have fun

[Stable Lad]

Not the most convincing performance but its got the first game out of the way with a win. Milly played a blinder I thought. Delighted for Beth. We'll play better both as a team and as individuals. We are on our way.

[Stable Lad]

1st round of matches completed and a good few teams have shown they are contenders. England's game tomorrow could prove pivitol to our whole competition; very tough opponents and finishing 2nd most likely means a next round match v the Germans who looked very good. 3 points a must.

[Stable Lad]

England v Norway Simply the best 45 mins of live football I have ever had the privilege to watch live.

[Andrew B]

Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer, A-ha, there was Nor way that England were going to lose last night. Fantastic performance by England against Norway, as Ian Wright said at half time, in the 2nd half, carry on with the same momentum as the 1st half. Score two more goals, then make changes.
A good start by England in the Tournament, two wins, two clean sheets. A good base to build from.

[Daveangel]

Enjoyed the first half. As good as we were, hard to believe some of the Norwegian players earn their living from football.

Got a free £5 bet builder on the game so chose a few things I thought might happen and 5 of 6 had come in by after half an hour.

Needed one Norwegian shot on target to win £380.

I presume I fell asleep at the time I gave up on it happening!

Good to watch some football!

[Stable Lad]

Enjoyed the first half. As good as we were, hard to believe some of the Norwegian players earn their living from football.

Just read an article about what the Norwegian press made of it. Scathing does not do it justice!! All said exactly what K and I said at the ground: side set up totally wrong and Manager took far too long to react.  Yep, they didn't play well but 11th in world rankings so shouldn’t have got tanked like that.  Mind you not sure many would have got in Englands way that evening.  I reckon the Irish will give us a much better game tomorrow even though in theory they are not as strong.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

I applied for tickets for tonight's game against Norn Iron, but was unsuccessful. So one should assume that it will be a full house, and if it isn't then I might take it personally and will want to know why.

On the flip side I have managed to get 3 tickets to the Final at Wembley for less than forty notes, as well as a coach there and back for even less. That's absolutely amazing value and will be quite an experience.

Hopefully England will be playing and it will be the new 1966 but I have a feeling the most difficult game for us will come in the quarters against Spain.

[Stable Lad]

Yes, it was pretty much filled last night. V few empty seats and I believe at least 5 GCAFC folk dotted around stadium. Some space in Irish end but told there were problems with late cancellation of flights. K and I Wembley bound too and yes, really good price. Car park costing more than our tickets..

Last night the atmosphere was good. A par performance against the Irish who really made things difficult for a while.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Sounds like a very enjoyable experience and memory.

I'm glad the first 40 were harder than predicted. It will keep the team grounded and not get too carried away after Norway. Would have liked to have seen more changes earlier but we do seem to have a very decent back up in defence, midfield and attack.

I would stick with Ellen White up front and resist calls to bring in Alessio Russo. White is absolutely predatory in front of goal, a return of 2 in 3 games and across 14 team goals is disappointing by her standards, but that is how high her standard is.