© Matt Davenport / Sport Pix 2026: England Lionesses and mascots.

Walking out behind the LED hoardings at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium for an international match, you definitely feel the jump in scale.

A lot of my regular work has been forged in grassroots sport, cold Saturdays at Nuneaton Town and long weekends poolside at regional swimming galas. I had already tasted high-stakes, high-pressure atmospheres photographing Coventry City in the Championship, including their play-off semi-final against Sunderland. Even so, stepping out on assignment for Sport Pix to cover the England Lionesses against Greece in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 play-off marked a huge personal milestone: my senior international photography debut!

On TV, international football looks smooth and spacious. Sitting behind the advertising hoardings with 300mm of glass mounted on the monopod, the sheer velocity of the ball and the speed of movement hit you straight away.

Any debut nerves vanished the moment the referee blew the whistle. When Alessia Russo pounced to bury the opener inside three minutes, there was no time to dwell on the occasion, it was straight into work mode: track the run, catch the celebration, and lock into the rhythm.

England never let off the gas. Lauren James caused constant problems cutting inside off the wing, Georgia Stanway pulled the strings in midfield, and England were four goals clear before half-time. At this level, tracking play demands complete concentration; the ball moves with such pace that if you don't read a player’s body shape early, the frame is gone before you even touch the shutter.

The biggest challenge of the night wasn't just following the play, it was managing the live agency wire. Covering Championship fixtures teaches you how to navigate busy touchlines, but working a live wire means editing, tagging metadata, and transmitting key action directly from a laptop, while the match is still unfolding. Because England were constantly on the attack, finding a safe 30-second window to wire files without missing the next cross into the box was a genuine balancing act. Sticking to a disciplined routine of shoot the burst, quick check, transmit via FTP, and get right back to the viewfinder, kept everything moving smoothly.

Russo kept working the Greek backline all evening and took her second goal cleanly in the 75th minute to make it 5–0, giving me some of my favourite action frames of the night under the floodlights. It was also brilliant to document the younger players coming through, with Lexi Potter showing great composure starting in midfield for her senior debut, and Freya Godfrey coming off the bench to pick up her first senior cap.

It was a fast, demanding ninety minutes, but relying on solid matchday habits and my earlier Championship experience carried me through. Seeing the full set land cleanly on the Sport Pix wire desk after the final whistle was a genuine buzz, and a debut I won't forget anytime soon.

You can view my full set available for editorial licence at: https://www.sportpix.org.uk/portfolio/G0000eGQnQSeIKvM

England Lionesses vs Greece: My International Debut

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