Siobhan Chamberlain surprised by ‘bizarre’ Kenny Shiels comments

Former England goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain has described comments by Northern Ireland manager Kenny Shiels that female footballers are “more emotional than men” as “strange”.

Speaking after watching her team concede four times in 27 second-half minutes in their 5-0 World Cup qualifier loss to England on Tuesday night, Shiels suggested the women’s side are more likely to concede group goals.

However, Chamberlain told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We all know, and as footballers, we are drilled into it, the five minutes after conceding a goal, the five minutes after scoring a goal across the board, not just in the Women’s Football”. , also in men’s football, the more likely you are to concede a goal, the more likely you are to score again.

“That’s not just in the women’s game, it’s also in the men’s game and generalizing that to women is a bit of an odd comment.

“You have to take a little bit of responsibility for knowing the value that words can have and when you give post-game press conferences when you’re feeling emotional after a big game, it’s important to make sure you’re speaking sensibly. and they are aware of the message that their words can carry”.

Shiels’ side had also scored three goals in nine minutes against Austria on Friday.

Speaking after the England game, which was played in front of a crowd of 15,348 at Windsor Park, he said: “I thought sometimes they were struggling a bit to open us up to the psychology of going two up.

“In women’s football you will have noticed if you review the patterns, when a team concedes a goal they concede a second in a very short period of time.

“Across the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because girls and women are more emotional than men, so they don’t take a goal very well.”