Goals from Grace Clinton, Elysia Boddy and Freya Gregory help England WU19s defeat Finland

England women’s under-19s kicked off their Marbella International Tournament campaign with a 4-0 victory over Finland.

The development squad has travelled to Spain for ten days and enjoyed an impressive victory in their first match on Thursday at the Estadio Municipa Ciudad de La Linea.

Gemma Davies’ side took the lead against Finland just after the quarter-of-an-hour mark, when the Finland defender was pressurised into a short back-pass and Grace Clinton pounced.

The Everton forward rounded the goalkeeper and left the last defender trailing before calmly placing the ball into the corner of the net.

There was a trio of changes for England at half-time and one of those doubled the lead just three minutes after her arrival.

Good build-up play in the centre of midfield and excellent work from Clinton saw the forward draw the opposition goalkeeper towards her before unselfishly passing to Leicester City’s Elysia Boddy to tap in from six yards and mark her debut in style.

Another replacement who plays for Leicester, Freya Gregory, then hit the crossbar with a corner and the ball needed to be scrambled away.

But the talented winger did score with a quarter of an hour remaining when her 25-yard free-kick went in via the underside of the crossbar.

And it was Gregory, who is on loan at the Foxes from Aston Villa, who rounded off the victory in injury time when she outsprinted the defenders down the left and slotted the ball underneath the on-rushing goalkeeper.

Next up for the development squad is Denmark on Tuesday.

England: Khiara Keating (Manchester City), Jorja Fox (Charlton Athletic, on loan from Chelsea), Ruby Mace (Manchester City), Tara Bourne (Blackburn Rovers, on loan from Manchester United), Anouk Denton (University of Louisville), Aggie Beever-Jones (Bristol City, on loan from Chelsea), Charlotte Wardlaw (Liverpool, on loan from Chelsea), Maisie Symonds (Brighton & Hove Albion) ©, Laura Blindkilde Brown (Aston Villa), Grace Clinton (Everton), Emily Murphy (University of North Carolina)

Substitutes: Elysia Boddy (Leicester City) for Beever-Jones HT, Freya Gregory (Leicester City, on loan from Aston Villa) for Symonds HT, Lucia Kendall (Southampton) for Mace HT, Lois Moore (Everton) for Clinton 57’, Caitlin Smith (Clemson University) for Keating 77’

Substitutes not used: Charley Docherty (Nottingham Forest, dual-signed with Sheffield United), Teyah Goldie (Watford, dual-signed with Arsenal), Neve Herron (Sunderland), Olivia McLoughlin (Aston Villa), Halle Houssein (West Ham United, dual-signed with Arsenal), Emma Thompson (Chelsea)

Head coach: Gemma Davies

Goals: Grace Clinton 16’, Elysia Boddy 48’, Freya Gregory 75’, 90+4’