Last updated on .From the section Women's Football

Head coach Phil Neville said he made a series of second-half substitutions in England's friendly win over Spain in order to see them "suffer".

Well-worked goals from Beth Mead and Ellen White put the Lionesses 2-0 up, before Spain halved the deficit through Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati on an entertaining night at Swindon Town's County Ground.

England, who lost their opening friendly against Canada and have two more before this summer's finals in France, then made five outfield changes later in the second half, but survived late pressure from the visitors ranked 13th in the world.

"I knew that the subs would break the rhythm of our team but I wanted to see how our back four would cope and how our midfield players would dig in," Neville told BBC Sport.

"For us to do well at a World Cup, there are going to be games when we're going to have to dig in and block shots. That's what I wanted to see.

"I felt we could do better because the next step is to dig in and show composure as well. We slashed at things too much, we just booted things clear, which I didn't want.

"But the scenario that we planned actually happened - Spain got us on the run, they were playing in pockets, and players were stretched.

"It was quite fun watching them stretched, out of their comfort zone, shattered and running from side to side. So it was a really good workout that went exactly as I wanted it to."

England experiment with two months to go

England, who are ranked third in the world and will be among the favourites in France this summer, made nine changes from Friday's underwhelming 1-0 defeat, with only Rachel Daly and Toni Duggan keeping their places in the starting side.

The majority of Neville's changes to the starting XI were seemingly experimental, but at least two were enforced, with captain Steph Houghton absent with a groin strain and goalkeeper Carly Telford withdrawn after suffering concussion in training.

Having rarely had the ball in an unsure opening 10 minutes, England grew into the first half and began to look very dangerous on the counter attack, with Mead being denied by a close-range save not long before her opener.

The Arsenal forward slid in to net the opener from Birmingham City striker White's first-time cross, and then just 40 seconds after half-time, White's clinical finish doubled the lead.

But Spain, who are ranked 13th in the world, responded well after a swathe of second-half substitutions from both sides.

They pulled a goal back after a skilful move in which they passed their way through a static Lionesses defence.

There was almost a late equaliser, after substitute keeper Mary Earps rushed out of her penalty area and unfortunately slipped, but Bonmati was unable to hit the target from range, as the hosts' defence scrambled back behind the Wolfsburg stopper to cover her.

Scott impresses in Swindon

Neville singled out Manchester City's Jill Scott for praise, on the night the Manchester City midfielder was captaining the Lionesses for the first time in 134 caps.

The midfielder missed February's SheBelieves Cup victory through injury, but looked back on form after setting up White's goal at the County Ground.

"I thought Jill Scott was unbelievable all night. She gave us composure in the final third and that's what we were looking for. We didn't have that against Canada."

England are back in action against Denmark on 25 May and New Zealand on 1 June before their first World Cup group game against Scotland on 9 June.