England U19 9-0 Moldova U19

Rushden & Diamonds FC
Kick off 7.30pm

There were fireworks at Nene Park as England recorded a second victory of this series of matches and did so in comfortable style running out 9-0 winners.

There was never really any doubt which way this match would swing, from the first minute on, as England found themselves five goals to the good inside the first half an hour.

A tremendous team performance against a disappointing Moldovan side, who barely tested Luke Steele in goal, was capped by superb performance by Manchester City winger Lee Croft, who played a part in a lot of England's best moves and six of the goals.

Stuart Baxter's team lit the fuse early on, getting off to a tremendous start,with a goal in the first minute. For the second consecutive match it was Eddie Johnson who found the net in the opening seconds.

Good work by John Welsh found the Manchester United hit-man ten yards out and he drove home to the delight of the crowd, some of whom were still finding their seats. It was all England from that moment on and it was surprising that it took so long for the tally to increase.

In the 18th minute that second goal came, courtesy of Croft. The Maine Road 'sparkler' had begun the match brightly and he skilfully cut inside the full back on the right hand side and delivered an unstoppable low drive to the corner of the net to double the young lions advantage. 

The football, and the goals, then started to flow, as England were on fire. Croft was again involved; this time it was his pin-point right wing cross that found the head of David Bentley. His header was well stopped by the keeper but he was unable to hold it and Bentley followed up to bundle the ball over the line.

Bentley struck his second and England's fourth in the 27th minute to start a frantic three-minute spell. Seconds after the goal, Pablo Mills went close but was denied by the keeper, who blocked his goal bound header.

The spell ended with another England goal, this time it was Liam Ridgewell who got his name on the score sheet, as he did last month against Yugoslavia at Kidderminster. The Villa centre back scored with a close range header from Ciaran Donnelly's headed centre, after the goalkeeper had failed to deal with a corner kick.

The score remained at 5-0 to the break, meaning the England players left to great reception from the 3,531 crowd at the home of Rushden & Diamonds.

Coach Stuart Baxter made one change at half time, as he replaced the red half of Liverpool, John Welsh with a representative from the blue half, Steven Schumacher. And it was Schumacher that was the man to get the scoreboard ticking again in the second half.

Croft, who was the most influential player on the pitch throughout latched on to a through ball and found himself floored by a clumsy challenge from Cheptene in the Moldovan goal. It was the ex-Under 16 captain Schumacher who confidently stepped up and made no mistake form the penalty spot, only seven minutes after joining the match.

Jerome Watt then got in on the act as he scored the seventh, with a goal that the Moldovan defence may want to forget. The Blackburn youngster ran from the half way line accompanied by 3 teammates, but pleasingly no defenders were in sight. He slotted the ball past the advancing keeper, who by now must have wished he was somewhere else.

With fifteen minutes remaining, another substitute, Matthew Kilgallon headed narrowly over from a Croft corner, but it was not long before a Baxter inspired switch was to lead to another goal.

This time it was England's third substitute, Tommy Wright who, having only been on the pitch for a matter of minutes, also found himself scoring for his country. Again it was Croft the provider, as England's eighth came as the Moldovan defence completely collapsed.

Man of the match Croft found himself in acres of space inside the area and unselfishly squared to the Leicester City player, who lifted the ball past the helpless keeper. A minute later the rout was complete and Wright found he could return the favour to Croft, albeit via a deflection from the 'keeper's body.

Croft walked the ball home almost as simply as he had done so around the Moldovan defenders all night. Kevin Keegan may be wondering when, not if, he should start introducing him to regular first team football if his performances continue.

Stuart Baxter said after the game; "I am very pleased. The team started like a bat out of hell, we are getting good at that. There was a lot of slick passing and movement. After we scored the first five inside half an hour, I thought we took our foot of the accelerator. I challenged them at half-time to get more goals and they scored again within two minutes of the restart.

"It isn't easy when you have opponents who were kicking us all over the place. But my team did a great job and Crofty was superb tonight. When he got the ball, nobody could get it off him. Whenever there is a UEFA tournament, you want to go as far as possible. We had 12 players unavailable tonight but we never wanted to use that as an excuse."

Matt Cook 

England: 1. Luke Steele, 2. Justin Hoyte, 16. Peter Whittingham, 4. Ciaran Donnelly, 5. Pablo Mills, 6. Liam Ridgewell, 7. Lee Croft, 8. John Welsh, 9. Edward Johnson, 10. David Bentley, 15. Jerome Watt

Goals: Johnson, Croft 2, Bentley 2, Ridgewell, Schumacher, Watt, Wright