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To watch the full interview with Stuart Pearce, click on the player on the right of the page.
England Under-21s Coach Stuart Pearce was pleased with the manner of his team’s victory over Portugal on Saturday afternoon as they won 1-0 thanks to Danny Rose’s first half strike.
Leading up to the game at a very wet Wembley, the Three Lions had conceded four goals in three games. But after taking the lead against the Portuguese they did well to keep their opponents at bay, keeping a clean sheet intact, and ensuring all three points went their way,
And the victory keeps England hot on the heels of Group Nine leaders Greece, who will be the next team to arrive in England on 3 March 2010 after Pearce’s side end 2009 in Lithuania on Tuesday.
“It was a really difficult game as we thought it might be,” Pearce told TheFA.com. “The resilience of the team is the one thing that’s sprung to mind. We’ve shipped goals cheaply just recently, now to come here and show that resilience, in difficult conditions, against a technically good side, and to have our backs against the wall for long periods of the game was fantastic.
“33,000 on a wet day, fantastic again, and I think it’s a major stepping stone for this team as a group
He added: “We’ve played better at times in matches, but I think overall there was a resilience that was shown and gelling together as a team. I think today was a real marker for us to step forward.
“England teams over the years, and I’m going back 20 years when I started, were built on clean sheets, and that’s what we have to be built on.
“We feel as though we’ve got goals in this squad and we probably could have scored more than the one we did, but certainly we have to build on being difficult to score against and we certainly were that today. “
England travel to Lithuania for their last game of 2009 in Vilnius on Tuesday.