As a Sunderland fan Jill Scott had little time for Alan Pardew during his days in charge of Newcastle United – but the pair do have something in common.
While Pardew, now managing Crystal Palace, is infamous for having head-butted Hull’s David Meyler last year, Scott is fresh from a three-match suspension imposed for another head-butt – on Arsenal’s Jade Bailey – in April.
The Manchester City midfielder, who is expected to play a key role in England’s game against France as they open their Canada 2015 campaign in Moncton on Tuesday, has reassured her fellow Lionesses there will be no repeat of that incident.
“It was a tough lesson for me to learn,” said the 28-year-old Wearsider, one of the England coach Mark Sampson’s most technically accomplished players. “It’s the first time I’ve ever been sent off and it’s an action I regret. I’m always laughing and joking off the pitch but I’m highly competitive on it and I probably just went over the edge that one time. I’m confident it won’t happen again, though.
“I’ve got enough experience to know how to handle myself in the future. I was just very competitive that game. We were getting beat that day and I just let things get on top of us. But now if you see confrontations going on you’ll probably see us running in the opposite direction.”
Scott is now hoping to avenge defeats against France in the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup and the group stage of the 2013 European Championship.
“We know France are a good team and we have to respect them for that,” she said. “Over the past few years they’ve shown why they’re a driving force in the women’s game. They’re very physical, they can get the ball down and play and they’ve got a lot of pace. But we’ve got to believe in ourselves going into this game.”
The difference from as recently as two years ago is that England’s class of 2015 are predominantly full-time professionals, playing mainly in the Women’s Super League, as opposed to being part-timers.
“Our players are a lot fitter now; our knowledge and understanding of the game is so much better because we’re around football every day, whereas in the past we might have been training only two or three times a week with the team,” said Scott. I think we’ve really shown progression tactically and technically, so hopefully that will stand us in good stead for this tournament.”
Sampson’s penchant for rotation has raised eyebrows but Scott has no complaints.
“You just have to trust the manager. It means we can play a number of formations with different personnel and perform in those formations.
“I think we’ve got to believe in what Mark’s doing. We’re confident we can switch formations mid-game. We’ve got a few formations nailed. I think it’s a massive positive because maybe in the past we were maybe too structured in one formation. We played 4-3-3 a lot under Hope Powell, so to have more flexibility is really good.”
