England women beat Czech Republic with late Williamson winner

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England Women ended their year with a much-needed 3-2 win in a friendly game against the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

Lionesses head coach Phil Neville had called for a response from his players after the 2-1 defeat to Germany on Nov. 9 in front of a record-breaking crowd at Wembley, which was a fifth loss from seven matches.

The Czech Republic, though, made the most of another slow start from England, who were playing their final match of 2019. Tereza Szewieczkova fired the home side into the lead after 15 minutes in a snowy Ceske Budejovice.

England then struck twice in the space of three minutes through Beth England and Arsenal's Beth Mead to turn the match around before Slavia Prague forward Szewieczkova equalised just before the half-hour with a 25-yard effort.

The conditions continued to deteriorate, and England capitalised with just four minutes left when a low shot from defender Leah Williamson was deflected past the Czech goalkeeper for her first international goal.

"I've got to say I think we should be beating the Czech Republic by more than three goals to two," Neville said. "We dominated the second half, were careless a little bit in possession in terms of the final pass, the final run, the final cross -- but I suppose it is the last game of the year, we wanted to finish on some kind of win and we did that."

England were without captain Steph Houghton, Alex Greenwood, Jodie Taylor and Ellen White as Neville looked to both manage player fitness and utilize his squad.