Siobhan Chamberlain surprised by ‘bizarre’ Kenny Shiels comments

Former England Women goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain has described comments from Northern Ireland boss Kenny Shiels that women footballers are “more emotional than men” as “bizarre”.

Speaking after seeing his side concede four times in 27 second-half minutes in their 5-0 World Cup qualifier defeat by England on Tuesday evening, Shiels suggested women’s team are more susceptible to conceding goals in clusters.

However, Chamberlain told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We all know – and we get it drilled into us as footballers – the five minutes after you concede a goal, the five minutes after you score a goal across the board, not just in women’s football, in men’s football as well, you’re more likely to concede a goal, you’re more likely to potentially go on to score again.

“That’s not just in the women’s game, that’s in the men’s game as well and to just generalise that to women is a slightly bizarre comment.

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

Shiels’ side had also shipped three goals inside nine minutes against Austria on Friday.

Speaking after the England game, which was played in front of a crowd of 15,348 crowd at Windsor Park, 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.”