THE CAPTAIN OF THE Northern Ireland women's team has come out and backed Kenny Shiels in the wake of the 'women are more emotional men comments' 

Marissa Callaghan has said Shiels was 'a man of integrity and that the team would stick by the 60-year-old. 

Shiels spoke after his side lost 5-0 to England in a World Cup qualifier this week.

I'm sure you will have noticed if you go through the patterns - when a team concedes a goal, they concede a second one in a very, very short space of time,' Shiels said on Tuesday when referring to women conceding quickfire goals in games. 

'Right through the whole spectrum of the women's game, because girls and women are more emotional than men. So they don't do very well.

'When we went 1-0 down we tried to slow it down to give them time to get that emotional imbalance out of their heads. That's an issue we have. Not just in Northern Ireland but all of the countries in the world.'

Shiels then retracted the comments and said : 'I shouldn't have told you that.'

He then apologized with a statement on Northern Ireland's website.

Arsenal legend Ian Wright, and Republic of Ireland international James McClean all slammed Kenny for the comments, but the players have have now backed and defended Shiels with a statement

In a statement from captain Marissa Callaghan (R) posted on social media on behalf of the team, she said Shiels was 'a man of integrity' and said his words were in relation to a meeting the players had with him .

'In light of recent events, collectively we stand by our manager,' she said. 

'We feel his interview was in relation to a meeting we had as a team where we analyzed that we concede goals in quick succession and emotions was one of the many things we discussed,' wrote Callaghan.

'Since Kenny took over our national team 3 years ago, I have always complimented him publicly on how he can get the best out of his players individually and collectively. He is a man of integrity who cares for us like we are family.

'Kenny has transformed the game here in Northern Ireland because he understands how to get the best out of his players. We have qualified for a major tournament because he transformed our mindset.