Kenny Shiels to continue as Northern Ireland captain after ‘women are more emotional than men’ comments | Football News

Kenny Shiels will continue as Northern Ireland Women manager after receiving the backing of his squad despite saying “women are more emotional than men” following defeat to England on Tuesday.

Shiels made the comments, which he apologised for on Wednesday, after his side’s 5-0 thrashing by England in front of a bumper 15,348 crowd at Windsor Park, as Northern Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for next year’s Women’s World Cup were ended.

Captain Marissa Callaghan said in a statement the squad “collectively stand by our manager”. Sky Sports News understands his job is not under threat.

He said: “I thought they were struggling a wee bit at times to open us up until the psychology of going two up.

“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 they take a goal going in not very well.

“So if you watch, if you go through the stats – which journalists love to do – go through stats and you’ll see teams conceding goals in 18 and 21 minutes, and then in 64 and 68 minutes. They group them because that is an emotional goal.

“We conceded in 48, with three in seven minutes or three in nine on Friday [in 3-1 defeat to Austria]. We were conscious of that when we went 1-0 down, we killed the game and tried to just slow it right to give them time to get that emotional imbalance out of their head. And that’s an issue that we have – not just Northern Ireland – but all the countries have that problem.

“I shouldn’t have told you that.”

Shiels issued an apology on Wednesday, saying: “I wish to apologise for my comments made in the post-match press conference last night. I am sorry for the offence that they have caused.

“Last night was a special occasion for the women’s game in Northern Ireland and I am proud to manage a group of players who are role models for so many girls, and boys, across the country.

“I am an advocate for the women’s game and passionate about developing opportunities for women and girls to flourish.”

England opened the scoring on Tuesday through Lauren Hemp in the 26th minute but Shiels’ side kept the deficit to one goal at the interval before conceding four times in 27 second-half minutes.

“When we went 1-0 down we tried to slow it right down to give them time to get that emotional imbalance out of their heads. That’s an issue we have,” Shiels added.

“It’s not just in Northern Ireland, but all countries.”

Northern Ireland needed to avoid defeat against Group D leaders England to keep their slim hopes of progressing to Australia and New Zealand next year alive.

While they can still move level on points with second-placed Austria, Northern Ireland’s inferior head-to-head record has extinguished any chance of leapfrogging their rivals into the only play-off berth.