Casey Stoney during her time in charge of Manchester United Copyright: xkevinxWarburtonx-xAxMomentxinxSportx PSI-12782-0042

Canada head coach Casey Stoney had a few words directed at match officials ahead of her team’s friendly against the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Olivia Smith was injured against Switzerland at the weekend, and has since returned to her club Arsenal to recover from a hip problem.

And Stoney hinted that the match officials ought to have been firmer with some of the physicality during the game.

“I get a little bit more frustrated when it comes to player safety and I felt like there was a lot of stuff getting let go that wasn’t protecting players … And I was asking the questions and I was just getting completely ignored,” she said to media. “So in the end I just sat down and shut up because there was zero point in me saying anything.

“It wasn’t good enough.”

Casey Stoney: It’s not an excuse

Canada lost 1-0 to Switzerland, ranked 24th in the world. Their match before that was a 3-0 defeat to the USA in July.

But Stoney is not worried about results at this point – pointing out that Canada have not played a competitive...