Northern Ireland Women's team boss Kenny Shiels has claimed women concede back-to-back goals quicker because they're 'more emotional,' in an emotional post match interview.
Northern Ireland faced England in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday night and were on the receiving end of a battering, as the visitors won 5-0.
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On two occasions the team scored twice in the space of 10 minutes, accounting for four of the goals, and they led to the Northern Ireland manager to make his very controversial statements.
Speaking after the game Shiels claimed that female players were 'more emotional' than their male counterparts and that's why they often conceded straight after another goal.
"I felt they [England] were struggling a wee bit at times to open us up until the psychology of going 2-0 up in the women’s game — I’m sure you will have noticed if you go through the patterns — when a team concedes a goal, they concede a second one in a very, very short space of time," Shiels said.
"Right through the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because girls and women are more emotional than men. So, they take a goal going in not very well.
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"When we went 1-0 down we tried to slow it down to give them time to get that emotional imbalance out of their heads.
"That’s an issue we have. Not just in Northern Ireland but all of the countries in the world. I shouldn’t have told you that."
The statement obviously caused outrage amongst fans, with even Arsenal legend Ian Wright chipping in to say how wrong the manager was.
The claims by Shiels are certainly the kind that have no place in women's football and are the kind you'd expect by someone outside of the sport, who has never watched a women's game, because it's women, not by a manager of a national team.
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The former Morton manager is set to take his side into the Women's Euros in England this summer, and he'll be coming up against the hosts again there.
Northern Ireland take on England in their final game of the group stages at St Mary's, Southampton's home ground, on July 15th.
Perhaps before then he can coach his team to defend better, especially after conceding, rather than blaming it on pretty baseless claims, stop being so emotional Kenny...
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: England, Women's Football, Womens World Cup, Northern Ireland
