Ian Wright slams Northern Ireland boss Shiels for saying ‘women are more emotional than men’ after 5-0 loss to England
KENNY SHIELS claimed women “being more emotional than men” as a reason for multiple goals being swiftly conceded by women’s teams.
The Northern Ireland Women’s chief made the remark after England beat his side, netting four second-half goals in 19 minutes.
The 5-0 result followed Shiels’ team losing 3-1 to Austria in their previous World Cup qualifier last Friday.
Their Austrian opponents netted three times in under ten minutes.
And Shiels suggested teams giving away two goals in a “very short” space of time is something that occurs throughout women’s football.
After the loss to England, the Northern Ireland chief, 65, told reporters: “I felt they (England) were struggling a wee bit at times to open us up until the psychology of going 2-0 (behind).
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“In the women’s game, you’ll have noticed if you go through the patterns, when a team concedes a goal, they concede a second one within a very short period of time.
“Right through the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because girls and women are more emotional than men, so a goal going in (is something) they don’t take that very well.”
“When we went one nil down, we killed the game and tried to just slow it right down to give them (the players) time to get that emotional imbalance out of their head.
“And that’s an issue we have, not just Northern Ireland, but all countries have that problem.”
Shiels’ remarks have come in for criticism from followers of the women’s game.
And Arsenal legend and WSL ambassador Ian Wright slammed the comments in a post shared via his official Twitter account.
This morning Wright, 58, tweeted: “Kenny Shiels (is) talking foolishness. Talking about emotional women!
“Didn’t that man see how many times I was crying on the pitch!”
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Losses to Austria and England have effectively ended Northern Ireland’s hopes of reaching the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
However, the team will compete in the Women’s Euros for the first time in their history in July.
And Shiels is turning his attention to tournament preparations and duels with their Group A rivals Norway, Austria and England.
On those matches Shiels said: “It’s going to be very, very difficult to beat England and Norway.
“But the Austria game – in the two (qualifiers) we played against Austria- I felt we were every bit as good if not better than them. But they’re a really good team.
“We’ve got to go (into these games) with a positive frame of mind.