Lionesses shredding labels and winning friends at France 2019

Here we are worried about the fitness of Steph Houghton and Millie Bright. Our concern has pushed other matters out of the headlines. Not only do we know their names, we know their positions, their importance to the team. We are approaching full engagement, the point were labels like ‘Women’s’ World Cup and England ‘Women’ are becoming unnecessary clutter. Get rid of them. They are the Lionesses, no introductions required. They draw the greater share of audience figures on the BBC. Almost seven million watched the victory over Cameroon.

There are still some reluctant time warpers out there who insist on raising petty structural issues; the overreach of FIFA marketeers, the stadiums are not full, the goals are too big, the goalkeeping is sub-standard, the referees are not up to scratch, that sort of stuff. Let them wallow in their own negativity. There are enough takers for whom the experience is a joy, and in some respects a revelation. The Cameroon aberration aside, the honesty of the players and the spirit in which matches are contested enhances the enterprise and the integrity of the game.

What a pleasure it is to see players stay on their feet in the tackle instead of simulating GBH, to watch referees go about their business free of baying abuse. If there are a few empty seats in the gaff, who cares? They will fill in their own time. As the game grows the audience will increase commensurately. No need for alarm.

Fire and ice

And so to the quarter-final against Norway. Coach Phil Neville has done a fine job in bonding his team and weaning them off the long ball default of his predecessor Mark Sampson. His brand of fire and ice seems to be appreciated by the players. They respond to the detail of his technical instruction and to the considerate touches like respecting the gender difference in the changing room by keeping his half time observations short and leaving them to themselves.

Though his wife Julie is a bag of nerves back home, Neville will not allow this advanced stage of the World Cup to be about pressure and burden. He wants the squad to embrace it. “My wife worries like mad. She’s from an Irish family, she prays, lights candles, she’s really struggling and finding it difficult. She’s maybe best going to sleep for 90 minutes. But, for me, it’s business as usual.” The positive messaging is reinforced by his attitude to injury. The doubts over Houghton and Bright mean opportunity for Leah Williamson and Abbie McManus not cause for hand wringing.

“If Steph and Millie are out we bring someone else in, no problem. It will be a seamless transition. Everyone knows the system, the way we play. I’ve utter belief in all my players. I said six months ago I didn’t want to get to the quarter finals of the World Cup and throw someone in we haven’t tried or tested. There’s been a plan and it’s for moments like this.” Neville floats alarming close to parody with his nerdy intensity and Alan Partridge flourishes, yet none can doubt his attachment to this project. “My girls don’t have any fear of failure. We were crying out for this. We’re not going to say it’s nerve wracking or our bellies are twitching a little here. We will embrace it. The bigger the occasion, the greater the pressure, the more my players embrace it. They’re not going to back off.”

Energy

Norway present a stiff challenge. England have yet to produce the complete performance, losing shape alarmingly in the second half of the group matches against Scotland, Argentina and Japan. As fatigue set in England collapsed, losing the legs to compete and the energy to concentrate. Clumsy passing combined with confused thinking, handing the initiative to the opposition. Just as it has been with the English male of the species this was most keenly felt in midfield, where England appeared overrun.

Read more: Ellen White: England’s modest goal machine whose rise to stardom has been years in the making

Neville’s commitment to his players and to the pass-and-move template introduced is clear. The final step in their development is game intelligence, how to control a match when they don’t have the ball, how to be smarter when opposition tails are up, as they are entitled to be at this, the business end of the tournament.