BARROVIAN Georgia Stanway made her first start in the SheBelieves Cup for England women against the USA but she couldn’t stop them from falling to a 2-0 defeat against the world champions in Orlando.

The Lionesses were hit by a double whammy in the early stages of the second half as two goals in the space of two minutes from Christen Press and Carli Lloyd condemned Phil Neville’s side to their sixth defeat in nine games.

In truth, England were outclassed as the USA created plenty of chances during the match, with goalkeeper Carly Telford pushing out Rose Lavelle’s curler before she made an excellent block to deny Lindsey Horan after Steph Houghton had failed to cut out Lloyd’s pass.

The Lionesses did have an opening from a corner, however, but Jill Scott was unable to keep her effort down after Lauren Hemp’s flick-on.

Having done most of the pressing, the hosts went ahead after 53 minutes when Press was found in space by Lloyd before bending a beauty past Telford from 25 yards out.

Whilst England were reeling from that, they fell further behind when Julie Ertz chipped the ball over a static defence to put Lloyd in the clear and she finished clinically into the bottom corner.

Stanway then created a good chance for Nikita Parris to pull a goal back for the Lionesses but the Lyon forward was denied by USA ‘keeper Alyssa Naeher as the angle narrowed.

The Americans could have added more, with Lloyd shooting narrowly over, while Stanway’s night ended after 71 minutes when she was subbed off for Toni Duggan.

England will look to turn around their poor run of form when they face Japan in New Jersey tomorrow.