Eleven weeks after beating Germany to win bronze at the Women’s World Cup finals, England kicked off their Euro 2017 qualifying campaign with a totally expected thrashing of opponents who sit 72 places below Mark Sampson’s team at 77th in the world rankings.

When Roy Hodgson’s England visited the same Tallinn ground for a European Championship qualifier last October they won only 1-0 against Estonia, who at 80th in the world are ranked even lower than their female counterparts.

So was the eight-goal demolition of the Estonian women, the debutant Danielle Carter hitting a hat-trick, a far greater achievement for Sampson’s team than was the narrow victory achieved by Hodgson’s men? Not so, insisted Estonia’s English head coach, Keith Boanas. “The big difference,” said the former Charlton Athletic manager, “is that the men’s national team are full-time professionals whereas my players are all amateur.

“When we reported for training a few days before our qualifier here against Serbia last Thursday – a 1-0 defeat – work commitments meant that I only had 12 of my squad turn up. Three of those were goalkeepers, so that first day’s training wasn’t the best – but that’s the real world of women’s football here.”

It was perhaps no wonder then that England, whose squad of professionals had spent five days at the luxurious training facility that is St George’s Park before flying to Tallinn, won the game with such ease. Even with 12 players missing, most of them through injury, from the World Cup squad – and with a starting lineup that showed eight changes from the third place play-off match against Germany – it was near-inevitable that England would return home with three points safely in the bag.

Boanas had promised that he would not “park the bus” as a damage-limitation exercise, although he also noted, “if we nick an early goal I’ll park 10 buses!” and he was true to his word as Estonia pushed forward at every opportunity.

His team nevertheless had to defend for the majority of a game in which England opened the scoring through the Arsenal striker Carter after only 90 seconds and – despite some disjointed play at times – run out more than comfortable winners.

The head coach Sampson, who sent out an attacking 3-4-1-2 lineup that included four players who regularly play up front, said: “It was a good scoreline for us and I was really pleased with the performance.

“The players maintained their standards throughout the 90 minutes, we played most of the game in the opposition half and we were clinical with our finishing.

“Credit Estonia, they were well organised and gave it a real good go but I thought we were very impressive – especially as we were playing in a new formation that the players weren’t familiar with and with a couple of debutants in the team.”

Boanas said: “My players gave me everything and I’m so proud of them. I’ve told them that at times they matched full-time professionals at the peak of their fitness and technical ability but tiredness inevitably told in the end.”

Sampson’s team were on the road to victory from the moment that Carter shot in from 10 yards after her initial attempt had been blocked. Estonia responded with some dangerous attacks in the early stages, mostly through the running of the striker Signy Aarna, who twice forced the goalkeeper Carly Telford into goal-line saves.

England doubled their lead, however, when the winger Fran Kirby, who had already struck the bar, passed for the midfielder Jo Potter – who played under Boanas at Charlton – to sweep in the second goal after 34 minutes.

Five minutes before half-time Kirby jinked her way into the penalty area to score with a low 12-yard shot and eight minutes after the interval the midfielder Jill Scott volleyed home the fourth goal from the winger Gemma Davison’s cross.

The second of England’s debutants, the midfielder Isobel Christiansen, made it five with an excellent 20-yard drive in the 74th minute. Kirby struck her second goal in the 81st minute, lofting a 10-yard shot into the roof of the net. Carter then completed her hat-trick with two goals in the last six minutes, the first a close-range finish and the game’s final goal stuck in from 15 yards.

Next up for England in their qualifying group is a November meeting with Bosnia & Herzegovina, opponents who like Estonia will not provide the sternest of tests. A better gauge of the team’s potential to win the 2017 European Championships in the Netherlands – Sampson’s already stated aim – will be a friendly against Germany, also to be played in November.

Sampson said: “We’re on the crest of potentially doing something very special and over the next 18 months we’ve got to aim to test ourselves against the very best to keep on improving. Germany will be a great test – we’ll be going out against a wounded animal in a packed out stadium and it’s going to be a really exciting opportunity for us.”

Estonia Laar; Lepik, Paulus, Raadik, Zlidnis; Ounpuu (Himanen, 55); Bannikova (Toom, 75), Vals, Palmaru (Pello, 82), Loo; Aarna. Subs not used Lambin, Toom, Hoop, Kallas, Rosen.

England Telford; Turner, Houghton, Stokes; Davison (White, 78), Scott (Aluko, 68), Potter, Kirby; Christiansen; Clarke, Carter. Subs not used Bassett, Bardsley, Stoney, Flaherty, Greenwood.