Beth Mead calls on England to show more of a ruthless streak
England beat Australia 3-0 in the second game of their homecoming tour
England forward Beth Mead has urged the Lionesses to be more “ruthless” despite beating Australia 3-0 in the second game of their homecoming tour at Pride Park.
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Sarina Wiegman’s side responded in style to their 2-1 defeat to Brazil at the Etihad Stadium just three days earlier as Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze and Georgia Stanway all got on the scoresheet.
Alanna Kennedy’s first-half sending off helped England but the hosts had 29 shots throughout the contest, with nine of them on target.
Mead was pleased with the reaction to the Brazil defeat, but knows they could have had more goals to show for their dominance.
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She told the England website: “I think we started the game off really well. They got a player sent off and it changed the dynamic and it helped us be more dominant in the game.
“A good win, good goals but we probably still need to be more ruthless than that in the final third.
“We’re in a good place and you obviously don’t want to see that in a game, and you don’t want to see people getting sent off because you want to test yourself against 11 players.
“It’s a little bit of a shame but you have to play what is in front of you and I thought we did that really well.
“We say we don’t lose, we learn, and that’s what we did against Brazil and today, it was nice to get the win.
“We were disappointed, it was not the best 20 minutes of football we’ve played but ultimately we have to show a reaction, we’re playing against different teams with different styles of play, and I thought we reacted well.
Bronze made a first start of the season in Tuesday’s friendly after recovering from a fractured tibia she suffered during Euro 2025.
The Chelsea defender notched England’s second on her 34th birthday and Mead had plenty of praise for her team-mate.
She added: “I’ve been here a little bit longer and I’ve only ever known Lucy being here in the changing room and she’s such an amazing person.
“She brings a great attitude and professionalism day in day out and she deserves everything that she is getting right now and is an incredible legend Lioness.”