Women's Football: Natasha Dowie determined to make up for lost England time

Natasha Dowie hopes to start against Turkey (Getty Images)

Being the niece of former top-flight player and manager Iain Dowie has long made Natasha Dowie one of the more recognisable names in women's football, but the Liverpool striker is now finally carving out a reputation of her own.

Dowie topped the Women's Super League scoring chart this summer with 13 in 14 games as Liverpool won their first title, and she has been rewarded with a recall to the England team after the axing of Hope Powell. Dowie's omission from the squad that performed so poorly at Euro 2013 was one of the decisions that cast doubt on Powell, and it was quickly rectified by the caretaker manager, Brent Hills.

Dowie made her England debut in 2009, and scored an extra-time winner for Everton to win the women's FA Cup the next year, but her international career stagnated. Having won three caps in two years, she was left out from September 2011.

Now she is keen to make up for lost time and came off the bench to score against Belarus and Turkey last month. She is hoping to start in this afternoon's return World Cup qualifier against Turkey.

"Hopefully, I can keep picking up those minutes [as substitute] and if I'm impressing maybe get into the starting XI, because as a player that's what you want to be doing," she told FA TV in Adana.

Having beaten Turkey 8-0 in Portsmouth, England are expected to win comfortably to stay top of their World Cup qualifying group.

But they expect Turkey to seek to frustrate them as Wales did for the first half at the weekend. "We have been working on a few things as maybe we need to be cleverer in the final third," Dowie said. "But I'm confident we can pick up the points."