LIONESSES Melissa Lawley and Nikita Parris expressed their pride after Tuesday night’s 5-0 victory over Kazakhstan.

Lawley enjoyed a dream full debut, opening the scoring in Colchester, while Parris picked up two, helping England on their way to three wins in three World Cup qualifying matches.

Man City’s Lawley told the FA: “It’s obviously a very proud moment for me and my family that I got my senior debut tonight,” having made an appearance from the bench in last week’s rout of Bosnia & Herzegovina.

“The team have welcomed me, embraced me and all the coaches told me not to be nervous and just enjoy it.”

Fellow Citizen Parris praised the side’s patience in breaking down the visitors’ defence.

“Patience was a virtue, as they say, and we needed to be patient in the first half but in the second half we got onto that and the goals came,” she said.

“In the first half, we were trying a bit too much, trying to penetrate straight from our defence into their defensive third.

“We needed to come out and use the ball better and in the end we got the goals we deserved and it became comfortable in the end.

“I think we’ve got a great team and everyone wants to score in games like tonight when there’s so much attacking play but we were really disciplined in the second half and took our moments.”

Lawley had opened the scoring in the 15th minute from the right of the box after being set up by Jill Scott. Despite considerable first-half dominance, that was all England had to show for their efforts before the break.

But Kirby made it 2-0 in the 64th minute — seconds after coming onto the pitch in place of Jodie Taylor — with her second penalty in as many games, after Yekaterina Babshuk was adjudged to have handled the ball.

Parris then blasted home a fine Kirby through-ball for England’s third five minutes later before notching her second in the 75th minute after Scott’s dummy allowed Kiera Walsh’s pass to reach the City forward, who coolly placed it into the bottom right corner.

A minute later, Izzy Christiansen was at the far post to tap in Kirby’s ball across the face of goal after a searching cross by Greenwood as England again outclassed their opponents.

The win left England just a point behind Group 1 leaders Wales with a game in hand.