England Women v Russia
7.45pm, Thursday 8 March 2007
National Hockey Stadium,
Milton Keynes Dons FC


Tickets for the game on 8 March are on sale now
priced £5 for adults and £2.50 for concessions.

Tickets can be purchased from the Milton Keynes Dons ticket office
or by calling the ticket hotline on 01908 609 000.

Special group discounts are available for groups of over 15,
with tickets costing just £1 per person
which can be downloaded in the next 24 hours from TheFA.com.

Why on a Thursday? Can't get to MK from Brighton to see them after work!!

Do we know anything more about the Wembley game yet - surely they need to release ticket information soon.

As soon as there's info, we'll post it in the England v Scotland thread.

In the mean time you can pull a sickie and go to MK three days before

BBC3 SHOW THE GAME PLEASE!!!

Nobody wants to watch Dog Borstal! LMAO

Pulled a sickie for three days last week so don't think I'll get away with that again!

I'll try to get the afternnon off instead - otherwise BBC3 better show it or i'll be upset!

My predictions:

England 0-1 Russia

Eng 1 - 1 Russia

Are Russia any good?

They are 2 places below England in the rankings right now
but I think they are more consistent.
Haven't seen them for a while
but when I did, they seemed pretty solid

England 6 Russia 0

Scott, Aluko, Carney, Smith, Yankey, Stoney

Woooo! Well done England!

good game went to watch it shame about the coldness

Russia weren't actually as good as i thought they would be and kelly smith had a quiet game i thought they should of bought on sanderson then it could of been more than 6 haha

Congrats England!!

All different scorers, nniiccee
Smith...a quiet game?!

I thought that too but then at three or four up at the break in a friendly did she need to do any more?

Shame not to see S Smith and Sanderson given a run x

Squads:

England
1 Rachel Brown,
2 Alex Scott (12 Lindsay Johnson 57), 3 Casey Stoney,
4 Katie Chapman (16 Vicky Exley 86), 5 Anita Asante (20 Laura Bassett 86),
6 Emily Westwood (21 Stephanie Houghton 73), 7 Karen Carney,
8 Fara Williams (15 Jill Scott 73), 9 Eniola Aluko (17 Jody Handley 45),
10 Kelly Smith (c), 11 Rachel Yankey
Subs Not Used: 13 Siobhan Chamberlain,
14 Rachel Unitt, 18 Lianne Sanderson, 19 Sue Smith

Russia
Maria Pigaleva, Oxana Shmatchkova, Ksenia Tsybutovich,
Olga Sergaeva (Anna Kozhnikova 69), Maria Dyachkova,
Natalia Barbashina (Natalia Mokshanova 45), Elena Morozova,
Olga Petrova (Olga Kremleva 45) Olesya Kurochkina (Svetlana Tsidikova 57),
Valentina Savchenkova, Elena Fomina (c) (Tatiana Skotnikova 45)
Subs Not Used: Galina Vazhnova

Attendance: 5,421

Rach Unitt's not getting much time on the field lately....she was one of Hope's regulars for sooo long. Anyhoo congratulations England - suprised by the scoreline, Russia are better than that.

Hasn't Unitt had ankle problems recently?

Smith the captain Is this her first time?
Why wasn't Mary Phillip playing?

Yes, Rachel Unitt still seems to be having problems with her ankle atm.

I spotted this in The Times today - not often you get a report there on women's games. This is actually from Times online:

March 09, 2007

England relish joy of six

England 6 Russia 0

Bill Edgar


England’s women are playing three times in seven days as a World Cup warm-up and they were glowing after last night’s opening fixture. Russia may not have qualified for the finals in China in September, but their world ranking of No 14 underlines the size of the home side’s achievement.

Russia won the teams’ previous meeting three years ago, but there was never any prospect of a repeat at the National Hockey Stadium, in Milton Keynes. A starting line-up of players from Arsenal, Everton and Charlton Athletic got behind Russia’s defence with a series of well-timed runs and they will face Scotland and Holland with confidence.

The six goals were supplied by different players, the first in the tenth minute by Alex Scott after she exchanged passes with Fara Williams. Eniola Aluko soon scored a second, when Kelly Smith put her through, before Karen Carney and Smith each rounded the goalkeeper to bring up a four-goal lead at half-time. The second half was less one-sided, but England added further goals by Rachel Yankey and Casey Stoney, whose 35-yard shot looped into the net.

England (4-3-3): R Brown — A Scott (sub: L Johnson, 57min), A Asante (sub: L Bassett, 86), E Westwood (sub: S Houghton, 73), C Stoney — F Williams (sub: J Scott, 73), K Smith, K Chapman (sub: V Exley, 86) — K Carney, E Aluko (sub: J Handley, 46), R Yankey. Substitutes not used: S Chamberlain, R Unitt, L Sanderson, S Smith.

Russia (5-3-2): M Pigaleva — M Dyachkova, K Tsybutovich, O Sergaeva (sub: A Kozhnikova, 69), O Shmatchkova, O Petrova (sub: O Kremleva, 46) — E Morozova, E Fomina (sub: T Skotnikova, 46), V Savchenkova — N Barbashina (sub: N Mokshanova, 46), O Kurochkina (sub: S Tsidikova, 57). Substitute not used: G Vazhnova.

Referee: S Ihringova.

Nice of you to spot that mate,
have you spotted that I had posted the squads already though?

Here's the video highlights of the game

CASEY STONEY'S GOAL !!! WOW !!! The best of all 6!

Yes - but I thought I'd just post the whole thing I found