The Matildas needed a jolt. Trouble is, they only have four months to fix things

Ellie Carpenter called it a “game that we want to forget”.

“We obviously have a lot to work on. The Asian Cup is very soon, and I think tonight was a big lesson for us,” Australia’s straight-talking right-back said after the disconcerting, slightly perplexing 3-0 loss to England.

Carpenter continued her pitchside broadcast interview, reiterating the disappointment in Derby and the unfortunate predicament of going a player down in the opening 20 minutes, before finishing with: “We need to experience these losses and these situations.”

That is absolutely true. Tough lessons like these are precisely what can make a team under a new coach. A galvanising jolt that knocks the rose-tinted glasses off the end of one’s nose, prompting a clear-visioned period of good old-fashioned hard work.

Preferably a generous period, given there’s a tournament in March 2026 that is not just another chance for the Matildas to win a major trophy at home, but also the only avenue for them to qualify for the 2027 World Cup.

Also because Joe Montemurro is still in the early stages (like, the second window) of experimenting with starting XIs and moving the magnets around to see what works and what does not.

It’s a good thing he’s got two friendlies and four months up his sleeve. Very prudent of Football Australia.

It feels like old territory to criticise FA’s failure to appoint Montemurro in, say, mid-2024 as a direct, post-Olympics successor to Tony Gustavsson, instead of waiting for him to commit to Lyon and then having to engage in a tricky extraction process to rival Alanna Kennedy’s 19th-minute entanglement with a goalward-charging Alessia Russo.

So, instead of critiquing, let’s just imagine what it might be like had Montemurro begun his tenure at the start of the 10-month search for a permanent manager, and his Matildas had just lost 3-0 to England with a full year at their disposal to learn, and build, and finesse, before their opening Asian Cup match against the Philippines.

Such a timeline may have reframed this unfortunate, late-in-the-piece defeat at Pride Park as a performance on which to build. It may be easier to view the full-time statistics from another perspective, meaning Australia’s 30 per cent possession against the back-to-back European champions is something to be remedied, as is the three shots on goal to England’s 29, and the 108 touches in the opposition half to the Lionesses’ 520.

These numbers are, of course, skewed by Kennedy’s early red card that was promptly followed by Aggie Beever-Jones’ opener. As Sam Kerr pointed out: “We didn’t really even get to show what we had or what we worked on in the last week. It’s really hard to judge the game because we had such a different plan for the game.”

As it stood, the match was a stark reminder of the gap between these two 2023 World Cup semi-finalists in their first meeting since that night of August 16 in Sydney. The narrative around Sarina Wiegman’s England, reeling from an upset loss to Brazil, was that the standard needed to lift to meet the expectations befitting FIFA’s fourth-ranked nation.

Post-match, the view from England seemed to be of an improved start and then a numerical advantage weighting the contest heavily in their favour, paving the way for Lucy Bronze to double the lead and Georgia Stanway to bury a stoppage-time penalty. An awful-looking knee injury to young star Michelle Agyemang overshadowed it all.

The Matildas, conversely, were just hoping to get to the final whistle with a second-half clean sheet, only for the VAR to penalise Katrina Gorry and award a penalty. Kerr (wearing the captain’s armband) got through 69 minutes – her longest outing since returning to football – and enjoyed some positive moments but lacked opportunities. And questions around a lack of cohesive attack (never mind defence) will follow the Matildas into next month’s two-match home series against New Zealand.

In all, the picture was one of an England side who have spent the past two years improving, and an Australian outfit who’ve stood largely still – through no fault of their own. Ditto for Montemurro, who is doing what Gustavsson did not by actually mixing newer or fringe players with traditional starters instead of throwing on XI of one or the other.

The Australian is one of the world’s most respected and successful women’s football coaches, and he could yet have the Matildas ready to win the Asian Cup. And if he has only four months? Well, who would the Matildas be without a pre-tournament crisis?