Beth Mead 'devastated' after England Women fail to qualify for Nations League

England thrashed Scotland 6-0 at Hampden Park on Tuesday night, with Lucy Bronze’s stoppage-time header looking like it would be the crucial goal for the Lionesses to finish top of Group A1.

However, a late added-time brace from Damaris Egurrola meant the Netherlands pipped Sarina Wiegman’s team to the summit on goal difference, ending Team GB’s hopes of qualifying for Paris 2024 and ensuring the Dutch reached the inaugural Nations League finals.

Making her first international start since sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury more than 12 months ago, Whitby-born Mead bagged one of the six England goals, but acknowledged it was tough losing out by “small margins”.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t in our hands and the Netherlands got the four goals,” she said. “Congratulations to them but we’re absolutely devastated to miss out by such small margins.

“We made sure we kept in communication and Sarina was telling us what was happening in the other game so we knew what we were meant to do.

“We got the late goal and we thought we’d maybe got over the line but, unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be and that’s football. It is small margins, there were injury-time goals in both games and it wasn’t meant to be.”

European champions England lost out narrowly to the Netherlands and Belgium in their group games, going down 2-1 to the Dutch in September before a late Tessa Wullaert penalty saw Belgium win 3-2 in October.

The Lionesses had kept their qualification hopes alive going into the Scotland game as Ella Toone’s stoppage-time strike secured a 3-2 comeback triumph over the Netherlands in the reverse fixture at Wembley on Friday.

“It’s a tough one,” Mead added. “I think the girls have worked really hard. I thought we were incredible this camp.

“We’ve done ourselves proud in both games that we’ve played. Unfortunately, it was out of our hands and maybe we let ourselves down earlier on in the competition.

“But we’ll keep working hard, we’ll keep coming back stronger, and I’m excited to see what this team is about.”

As a result of Tuesday’s disappointment, England's next major tournament now is not until Euro 2025 in Switzerland.

Since the World Cup final defeat to Spain, there have been growing suggestions that Wiegman should offer opportunities to some of the younger talent coming through.

"There will be a lot of questions around the challenges that this Lionesses side has faced this year, certainly around the lack of rotation in the squad," former England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley told the BBC.

"There is such a plethora of talent coming through the younger age groups and maybe with some senior players starting to enter the twilight of their careers, is it time to start building in that succession plan for who will follow in their shoes?

"Maybe we can take a positive from the disappointment."