Lost for words

I don’t really know what to say after the final yesterday. I’m still in bits to be honest, especially as we’ve been getting better and better as the games have gone on in this competition.

I just thought that yesterday we didn’t play anywhere near our potential and it’s not nice when you lose.

I think if you play well and perform as best you can and still lose, you can hold your hands up but because we didn’t play well that makes it harder to take.

Personally, I still think we are better than them and could beat them but it just wasn’t our day and in a final it’s all about who performs well on the day.

Obviously we had played an extra 30 minutes in a tournament in our semi-final and it’s still our pre-season whereas they’re in the middle of their season, so that makes a difference.

But we can’t use that as an excuse because we still had enough in our locker to beat them if we’d played to our potential and you can only learn from the experience.

It wasn’t nice to see the Ukrainian players celebrating around the hotel last night, but we’d have been exactly the same if it was us, so you’ve just got to say well done to them and move on.

We’re heading home today after a total of three weeks together, so it will be nice to get back home and see my mum and dad and girlfriend but it’ll also be sad to leave the staff and the lads without bringing the trophy back.

It could be the last time we ever go away with an England group, but we’ll all have fond memories of this trip and the others we’ve had over the years.

It’s been a great experience for me and I’ve been part of the squad since 2006 when I was 15, so I can only say thanks to everyone who has been involved since then and hopefully I can push on now.

I don’t want to stop playing for England and I’m hoping that I might be involved with the U20s for the World Cup in Egypt in September, but that obviously depends if I’m selected in the squad and whether or not the club release me.

The manager at Middlesbrough has said he wants me to get as much international experience as I can, so I think I might be available for the World Cup and that would be another great experience.

Aside from that, I want to keep pushing on at ‘Boro. Hopefully I might be on the bench on Friday in our first game of the season, but if I can just get a place in the first team and benefit from the experience of playing as many games as I can, I’ll be happy.

Thanks for reading the blog and I’m sorry we couldn’t bring the trophy home.

Jason