Former Brookside star Anna Friel has some advice for headline-hogging footballers' wives. "They've got to stand on their own two feet", says the actress, who plays the fiancée of an international soccer star in the Goal! movies.

"I know that if I was married to one of the most incredibly beautiful handsome men in the world, and one of the most talented - that being David Beckham - I'd want to make my own mark.If they're being surrounded by these incredibly beautiful women, you've got to stand on your own two feet. And by having your won fame and celebrity, you stand more of a chance of doing that. It's horrible that they're put into that position".

She reprises the role of Geordie nurse Roz in Goal!2:Living The Dream, released in cinemas this week. The original Goal! - charting the rags-to-riches story of LA gardener Santiago as he joins Newcastle United - is showing on Sky Movies and has sold more than 2 million copies on DVD.

"What was interesting about playing Roz was that she isn't like all these women from the magazines", she continues. "She represents all the women that are married to footballers and don't want to be on the front page of magazines or who love shopping".

Friel, who caused a stir with a lesbian kiss on C4's 1980s soap Brookside, confesses a weakness for shopping herself. "I like a good old shop. I'm not into sun beds," she says. "But I'm quite blessed, I have a really blessed life, so I can buy what I want to. I'm not into luxuries so I'd probably buy more antiques for my house, some more of those lovely baby clothes. And houses, I like buying houses. I've just bought another one".

While Santiago goes off to sunny Madrid, Roz is left in rainy Newcastle doing her nursing examinations. Rochdale-born Friel does a very credible Geordie accent on screen.

She kept the accent quite a lot on the set even when she wasn't filming. "I love accents. It's something I adapt to very easily. Geordie is also a really nice, fun accent. It's sexy. I've just finished playing a Hungarian which wasn't quite so much fun as playing a Geordie".

In between making the two Goal! movies, 30-year-old Friel and partner, actor David Thewlis, became parents. Daughter Gracie was born in July 2005, meaning Friel had to combine motherhood and acting.

She pays tribute to the "really supportive team around me", noting that co-stars Alessandro Nivola and Kuno Becker were incredibly helpful with the baby. The costume designer won her approval for finding flattering tops to conceal "certain bumps".

"It made me not be a complainer. I just got on with it. I was a mother and a working actress and sometimes the two do not coincide. It's how you deal with it that show how strong you are. I can do anything if I can do that."

Since finishing the second Goal! movie, she's spent seven months filming in Prague. Again Gracie went with her. "She's visited ten countries in her first year", says Friel. "I don't know what kind of mother that makes me. She's very well travelled, she has a lot of stamps on her passport but she's adapted really well to it. We spent the past three months at home so she has some kind of grounding, and she's been able to mix with other children rather than having adults around all the time. She's got a very large vocabulary for a year-and-a-half. But for me, I can travel and follow my career as much as I want to and be able to put myself first until she goes to school. Then it's going to be a little bit more difficult. But she's a really good baby, I'm a really lucky mum."

Friel's knowledge of football has improved since the first Goal!. She went to her first match when she was in Madrid. "Alessandro also took me  a few times and taught me a lot more about it," she says. "I didn't realise how exciting it could be as a game. I still wouldn't go and watch a game of golf or cricket, but I'm a bit more of a football fan now".

Next for Friel is a film about Elizabeth Bathory, a real life figure who helped inspire Dracula's bloodsucking count. She was known to be the greatest murderess of all time, supposedly slaying 350 virgins, reveals Friel.

"The film tries to disprove the legend. It's the most challenging role I've ever had but a wonderful one to play. Gracie ended up playing my daughter. I had a lot of ballet training for that because my hair weighed about a stone and the costume was another stone - it was like being pregnant again. But I had to balance and be graceful at the same time.