England beat Northern Ireland 4-0 in their World Cup qualifier at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night as Beth Mead grabbed a hat-trick.
The substitute was introduced in the 74th minute by manager Sarina Wiegman and scored seconds after coming on. She needed just 14 minutes to complete a haul of three goals to ease any nerves her teammates may have been feeling with an initially slender scoreline advantage.
It was another sub, Bethany England, who added the other goal for the home team.
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Speaking after the game, Wiegman praised Mead, saying: “Of course she feels good, that we can see.
“I’m really happy for the team that she scored three goals, and for her especially. The players feel comfortable so players can shine. She started shining when she came on so did a really good job.
Today was a pretty hard game but we are working together, feeling good and we just want to go forward and forward.
Mead has scored four goals in her last three international appearances.
“She’s in a very good place at the moment and it’s obvious she is a good footballer. She feels really good and showed that on the pitch and does in training and with Arsenal,” Wiegman continued.
I’m going to make an agreement that we do that every game – we bring on a player and they score three times! I’m just kidding, but it’s really nice.
“It’s what you need to get to a higher level and win matches. It doesn’t matter who scores, we just need to score, so when you bring on a new player, you maybe do something different and then it’s really nice that we get a result with that.”
England will face Latvia in their next match on Tuesday.
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