England Women 2-1 South Africa Women: Experimenting Lionesses scrape through to narrow friendly victory

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England Women held off a resilient second-half push from South Africa to secure a narrow 2-1 victory in an international friendly in Coventry. Goals from Leah Williamson and Grace Clinton were enough to clinch the win, although the performance was far from convincing.

Sarina Wiegman insisted she was not concerned by criticism after the Lionesses were 3-0 down inside half an hour against Euro 2022 final opponents Germany at Wembley last Friday but rallied before eventually losing 4-3.

Wiegman was given another chance to experiment in Tuesday's first meeting with South Africa since a 1-0 win in February 2010 in the Cyprus Cup tournament.

The England boss made eight changes but Williamson kept her place to captain the side on her 50th appearance for the Lionesses - and the centre-back took her opening goal well having collected a pass from Jessica Naz (12).

Grace Clinton headed in Manchester United team-mate Maya Le Tissier's cross (23) - but South Africa did not crumble, and halved the deficit when Thembi Kgatlana produced a composed finish 10 minutes into the restart.

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Kgatlana twice came close to completing the comeback as Lucy Bronze executed a vital last-ditch block before Mary Earps' heroics ensured England limped back to winning ways in the Midlands.

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