Former Irish League star Duncan Lowry keeping tabs on Women's World Cup being played in his adopted homeland of New Zealand

The former Glenavon and Glentoran centre half, who moved to Tauranga in New Zealand permanently in 1993, said he would regularly watch matches in the early hours of the morning, though thankfully the England game didn’t keep him up too late, finished before 10.30pm.

The Lurgan man said he hoped England could add the Women’s World Cup to their European Championship success last year.

He said: “I’ll follow them the whole way as it’s a little piece of staying in touch with the other side of the world.”

Of the other contenders he said that Japan looked good as did Holland, who were based in Tauranga during the group stages.

Duncan said: “A lot of the young footballers, both girls and boys went to watch them train. They got photos of themselves alongside the players. It’s had an impact here.”

Duncan was also keeping tabs on Saturday’s Irish League meeting between his two former clubs at Mourneview Park in Lurgan which finished 1-0 to the east Belfast men – the goal coming in the ninth minute of injury time.

He commented: “There was a good crowd and MVP was looking great. Glenavon just couldn’t hold on.”

Meanwhile many of the Northern Ireland women’s team have been watching the World Cup in New Zealand, hoping that they might grace the same stage in the future.

Midfielder Rachel Furness, who recently transferred from Liverpool to Bristol City, tweeted: “This World Cup is everything we DIDN’T expect and I’m here for it.”

Back in Australia, and England’s players have vowed to rally round Lauren James after her she was sent off in the team’s penalty shoot-out victory over Nigeria in the World Cup last 16.

Former men’s national team striker Gary Lineker likened the 21-year-old Chelsea forward’s red card for petulantly standing on Michelle Alozie as she lay on the floor to Beckham’s kick-out at Argentina’s Diego Simeone at the 1998 World Cup.

“The @Lionesses down to 10 as Lauren James has a Beckhamesque moment of madness,” Lineker wrote on Twitter.

Criticism of James, receiving the side’s first red card since Millie Bright’s dismissal in the World Cup semi-final defeat to the United States in 2019, has been well short of what Beckham received and team-mate Lauren Hemp said she would receive the full support of the squad.

“It’s things that happen in football, it’s not nice to see a red card but I felt like going down to 10 players we dealt with it very well, we were super-resilient and didn’t let them score,” Hemp told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“It’s one of those things. We will get around Lauren James in the coming days, she’s still very young.”

James is likely to face a three-match ban for violent conduct, which would rule her out for the remainder of the tournament.