SARINA WIEGMAN praised Grace Clinton and Jess Park for making a difference during England’s 1-0 friendly defeat of Switzerland.
And the Lionesses boss challenged Clinton to become even more consistent following the victory last night.
After being benched for England’s 0-0 draw with the USA at Wembley on Saturday, Clinton delivered a sharp shift in response last night.
The Manchester United midfielder broke the deadlock eight minutes into the game for Wiegman’s revamped side.
Her first-half strike at Bramall Lane, for a youthful England team was her third goal in five senior international appearances.
Wiegman said: “Grace is improving well. She had to do a couple of things too. She had a good game.
“The next step (for her) is to get into the squad more often and get consistency.
“I was really happy with her. You can really see that she’s developing.
“But I also thought Jess Park made a difference today.”
England found themselves under pressure at times during the second half with Pia Sundhage’s Switzerland applying more pressure in the final third.
And despite having just three shots on target, Clinton’s finish was enough to ensure the 2022 Euros champions rounded off this year with a win.
And this followed some mixed results during their last camp, which included a 4-3 loss to Germany.
England will now look ahead to discovering who they face in next year’s Women’s Euros, with the draw scheduled next Wednesday.
Of the team’s performance, Wiegman added: “We played really well in the first half, we challenged them all the time, played mainly on their half of the pitch, created chances, and scored one goal.
“I was really happy with that because what we wanted to do with a very young team, some debuts and some starters for the first time in (a while) who hadn’t played for us.
“In the second half our level dropped. We were more sloppy.
“We didn’t find the pockets well enough. So that was a little bit harder.
“I wanted to see many things. I wanted to try out things, but also manage loads of players, because there is a quick turnaround.
“All of these things together make me take the (selection) decisions that I did.”
On a night in which the head coach made ten changes to the team that drew with the USA, the only significant error was one concerning their team sheet.
During the second-half Lucy Bronze was getting ready to come on for the hosts.
But the full-back ended up having to retake her seat on England’s bench due to not being included on the Lionesses’ squad list.
Wiegman said: “That was a human error from our side and that’s very frustrating of course, and very disappointing because we wanted to bring her in – mainly for her.
“These things happen sometimes.”
On Monday, Wiegman declared she would experiment and made ten changes to the team that faced the United States last time out.
Senior debuts were handed to Leicester midfielder Ruby Mace and Man City forward Laura Blindkilde-Brown.
In a nod to the future eight of Wiegman’s starting line-up was under the age of 25.
Blindkilde-Brown and Mace the youngest at 21.
Before last night, Wiegman urged Clinton to be switched on international shifts.
And she wasted no time in showing her alertness, smashing England’s early opener into the roof of the net.
Park dragged a shot wide shortly after the half hour mark before Maya Le Tissier had a tame shot comfortably claimed by Switzerland keeper Elvira Herzog.
Alessia Russo almost doubled England’s advantage with a 51st-minute header after replacing Park.
And England keeper Hannah Hampton made a swift stop to keep out Iman Beney’s strike as the visitors upped their tempo.
Her well-timed tipped ball over the bar denied Meriame Terchoun a long-range leveller with England holding firm.
And substitute Georgia Stanway struck the post with a shot in injury-time before her team saw out the win.
