England 2-1 Norway

Nordic Tournament
2.30pm, Thursday 03 August 2006
Fuglafjorour, Faroe Islands

England's young guns made it to the final of the Nordic Tournament and continued their unblemished record thanks to two goals from Jack Ainsley.

The achievement is a tribute to Kenny Swain's young squad as they make their first step up from the under-16 age group, they have more than proven their capabillity with three wins out of three in the group stage.

Following their fine displays against Sweden and Faroe Islands U19s, England faced the final hurdle of Norway to ensure they topped their group.

Jack Ainsley was the hero of the day adding to his tally with two cool finishes to give the Three Lions a clear passage to the final on Saturday.

The first goal came after just 18 minutes and it was a poachers finish from Ainsley with his left-foot.

Chrstian Brix levelled the scores nine minutes before the interval, but it was Ainsley again who found himself in the right place at the right time to seal the victory and take him to three goals in the tournament.

Kenny Swain feels that there is more to come from his side, but is convinced that they deserve the opportunity to win the tournament.

He told TheFA.com: "It wasn't the best performance of our time out here as we have certainly played better than that in the other two matches.

"But the important thing is that we did enough to win the match and now the boys have a wonderful reward coming on Saturday.

"What we have been looking forward to and preparing for is The FA International Tournament at the end of the month - that is has been at the forefront of our minds in preparing the boys for these matches, but there have been a lot of positives here also.

"We are tryring to establish who will be able to break into the squad from the younger age group for when we take on Portugal, USA and Turkey - and a number of players have staked their claim."

Kenny also revealed that the team have already visited the venue for the final with Denmark, "We took the boys to a Champions League qualifier on our day off and we saw a confident performance from Fenerbahce and got to grips with the surroundings.

"It was an experience for the lads, although it seems even when you get time off football finds it's way into your plans. Hopefully the final with Denmark will be an entertaining match and an improvement from today's performance."

England: Jason Steele (Middlesbrough), James Reid, (Nottingham Forest), Thomas Harvey, (West Ham) (Liam Darville, (Leeds United) 40), Jordan Spence (West Ham) (c), Joe Mattock, (Leicester City), Daniel Rose (Leeds United), Jonathan Franks, (Middlesbrough), Moses Barnett, (Arsenal) (Daniel Welbeck (Manchester United) 78), Adam Smith (Tottenham Hotspur) (Rhys Murphy, (Arsenal) 40), Lee Askham (Sheffield United) (Kyle Fraser-Allen (Tottenham Hotspur) 62), Jack Ainsley, (Ipswich Town) (Tristan Plummer, (Bristol City) 62)
Subs not used: Ben Gordon (Leeds United), Gary Woods, (Manchester United)

England Goals: Ainsley 18, 55

Norway Goals: Brix 30