England took one step closer to the Women’s World Cup with a 5-0 romp past Northern Ireland on Tuesday.
Two goals each for Lauren Hemp and Georgia Stanway secured yet another victory in the Lionesses’ march towards next year’s tournament Down Under.
Ella Toone also got on the scoresheet as England pushed their qualification goal tally to a whopping 68 goals in eight matches, all of which have been won without conceding a goal.
A dominant win in front of a bumper 15,348 attendance at Windsor Park in Belfast keeps England five points ahead of Austria at the top of Group D with just two matches remaining.
The hosts could ill-afford to lose further ground in their push for second place and were grateful for an offside flag after White netted on the rebound after Beth Mead's strike was parried by Jackie Burns.
But they fell behind three minutes later in curious circumstances as Toone's centre from the left was met by Hemp, who did not seem to connect cleanly but the ball looped up and went in at the far post.
It was no less than England deserved and, although Northern Ireland were able to keep the deficit to just one goal at the interval, the floodgates opened in the second half.
White came close to getting on the scoresheet upon the resumption before Toone did so with a composed first-time finish after Lucy Bronze had bustled her way into the box before cutting back.
Northern Ireland came close to an immediate response but Lauren Wade was denied by Mary Earps before Hemp shut the door on an unlikely comeback after rounding Burns and slotting into an empty net.
The industrious Toone then jinked her way into the area in the 70th minute and unselfishly teed up Stanway to rifle beyond Burns.
Nine minutes later the rout was completed with Stanway on target again after a header back across goal led to the Manchester City midfielder reacting quickly to get a shot away and the ball trickled in.
Merely avoiding defeat against Austria in their penultimate qualifying match in September will be enough to send Sarina Wiegman’s side to Australia and New Zealand for next year’s World Cup.
