England 2-2 Yugoslavia

U19s Friendly International
Aggborough Stadium, Kidderminster

England Under 19s draw 2-2 with Yugoslavia in an end to end friendly international at the Aggborough Stadium, Kidderminster.

A full house at the Aggborough Stadium was treated to an open and entertaining match, on a fresh night in the West Midlands. A crowd of 5,487 turned out to cheer on the young lions and flair and excitement were the order of the night. A good all-round team performance will have pleased coach Stuart Baxter and the individual displays of a number of players may well have David Platt thinking about additions to his already strong squad Under 21 squad for future matches.

The game started at a frantic rate and the fired up Wayne Rooney was in the thick of the action from the start. First he clashed with Dusko Tosic, prompting a quiet word for the pair from the referee and only seconds later he found himself with a sore head after an accidental clash of heads left him grounded.

However, it was Yugoslavia that went close early on. Luke Steele was made to stretch to tip over a cross-come-shot and then Peter Whittingham was alert to head away from the England goal line from the resulting corner.

It was the visitors that again went close in the sixth minute, only a magnificent save by Steele diving full length to his right to claw away a 25 yard effort from Milan Purovic kept the score sheet empty.

One thing that England do possess at this level is pace on the flanks, with full backs Whittingham and Justin Hoyte overlapping to good effect. In only the seventh minute this was demonstrated as Wayne Routledge, no slouch himself, sent Hoyte free down the right. The Arsenal youngster saw his low centre find its way back to Routledge on the edge of the area. His well-struck shot cannoned off a defender and away to safety.

It is difficult to explain how a defender should deal with the lively Routledge. To limit his the description of his assets to just pace does the young Crystal Palace player a disservice, as he has enough tricks up his sleeve to re-launch Paul Daniels' career!

On 18 minutes he had another snap shot from the edge of the area, this time it was high and wide, but he was at the centre of a lot of England’s best moves. Only two minutes later he had three Yugoslav defenders in a daze as he danced over the ball before picking out Rooney with an inch perfect cross. The Everton hitman's powerful header just cleared the crossbar.

Another man to impress was goalkeeper Luke Steele who dealt with everything that came his way. If England are looking for a long term replacement for the ageless David Seaman, then Steele may well offer an option in years to come. In the shorter term, Fabien Barthez should be watching back! In his only blemish in the first half, he uncharacteristically misjudged a ball lifted in to the area but the England defence managed to clear the danger. 

England's closest effort of the first half came after a cross by Rooney found John Welsh 8 yards out. The young Liverpool player twisted and turned exceptionally well under close marking and lifted a shot past Damir Kahiman in the Yugoslav goal, only to see the ball rebound off the post. England were having a good couple of minutes as Stewart Downing then saw his shot flash past Kahiman's left hand post only minutes later.

After 40 minutes Downing again found himself in a good position on the left, but Kahiman advanced well from his goal to bravely deny the Middlesbrough winger.

Half time saw Rooney and Downing depart, to be replaced by Eddie Johnson and Anthony McNamee. There was also a swap between the posts as Derby's Lee Camp replaced Steele.

Good pressure from England early in the second half, finally paid off in the 53rd minute. Liam Ridgewell had only moments early gone close with a header, before Eddie Johnson broke free down the left. His low cutback found David Bentley who powered the ball low under the 'keeper and covering defender.

The lead was doubled only three minutes later as the Yugoslav 'keeper struggled to deal with a cross under pressure from two England players. The ball bobbled down to the feet of Ridgewell and the Bournemouth bound defender had the simple task of finding the empty net from 5 yards.

England's concentration then slipped for a moment as Milos Krasic advanced towards goal. As defenders backed of he produced a lovely side footed finish inside the far post to make it two one. The game was now very open and both teams had a lot of space to play in.

Confidence was high and no more than in Bentley who played a part in both goals. He forced Kahiram to tip the ball over with an audacious 40-yard effort on the hour. The game opening up suited Yugoslavia as they hit on the break and they again exploited the space left by the advancing English players.

Bosko Jankovic found space on the edge of the penalty area in the 61st minute and, taking note from his team mate minutes earlier, calmly placed the ball in to the opposite corner of Camp's net to level the tie and complete an amazing 8 minutes.

Once the dust had settled, Ben Bowditch made way for Steven Schumacher and the Everton midfielder found himself wearing the captain's armband shortly afterwards. This came as a result of Purovic becoming the first man in referee Paul Armstrong's book after a late challenge on Glen Johnson. The challenge left the West Ham player struggling, leading to his departure only a minute later, to be replaced by Matt Kilgallon.

Both teams had late chances but in the end the match ended in a draw. Although they may have felt they deserved a victory, the performance will be of greater importance as the side now look to important matches in November.

Coach Stuart Baxter said after the game, "The boys were a little bit surprised in the first ten minutes as they came out and fought" "In the second half we pressured them hard and got a two goal advantage. The lads were disappointed after that as their two goals caught them by surprise" "We know what we've done wrong and the next step is to put that right"

Man of the Match David Bentley was pleased by his performance but expressed disappointment at the result. "We threw it away really," he said. It's good to score, but we wanted to win the game really"

The players should be happy with the night's events though as goalscorer Liam Ridgewell summed it up, "It was just two sloppy goals, but the whole team are happy with the overall performance".

Matt Cook

England: Luke Steele, Justin Hoyte, Peter Whittingham, Ben Bowditch, Glen Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Wayne Routledge, John Welsh, Wayne Rooney, David Bentley, Stewart Downing

Subs: Christopher Brown, Lee Camp, Lee Croft, Eddie Johnson, Steven Schumacher, Anthony McNamee, James Biggins, Jamie Hand, Matt Kilgallon