England 4-1 Poland

International U19 Friendly
7.45pm, 6 February 2007
The Fitness First Stadium at Dean Court, AFC Bournemouth

England scored four goals in 26 minutes to royally entertain the biggest ever crowd at the Fitness First Stadium in Bournemouth.

After going a goal down to Radoslaw Mikolajczak's 19th minute strike, the young Lions hit the goal trail to kick off 2007 in fine style.

Adam Hammill, Giles Barnes and a brace from James Vaughan sent the 10,375 crowd away with high hopes of the future of English football.

Mark Davies had the first chance of the match, latching on to a Michael Johnson through ball the Wolves midfielder had time to pick his spot but Kazimierczak stood firm and denied England the lead.

The Polish stopper then pulled off an even better save to prevent James Vaughan just moments later. With the visitors holding a high line the Three Lions were finding it easy in the opening stages to find space in behind the defence, but Vaughan was denied but a firm one handed stop from close range.

Despite dominating the opening exchanges England were caught on the counter attack and it was Mikolajczak that punished some indecisive defending at the heart of the defence.

Unbowed and unaffected by going behind early in the game, Brian Eastick's side stuck to their task and continued to play neat attacking football, creating chances from wide positions through both Davies and Hammill who saw a great deal of the ball.

Despite the pressure from the home side, Poland almost doubled their lead with ten minutes of the first half remaining. Patryk Malecki found space in the box and drilled a low effort past Annerson, but Elliot Omozusi showed great determination and at full stretch he cleared the ball off the line.

Straight from that incident, Hammill made a darting run down the left flank and found Barnes clean through. The Derby County forward struck an early shot with the inside of his foot that seemed destined for the top corner, but unfortunately it drifted narrowly wide of the goal to the delight of the stranded Polish stopper.

Hammill got England back on level terms just five minutes before the interval with a fine left-footed finish, to the delight of a record crowd at Bournemouth's Fitness First Stadium. Vaughan won the flick on and Mark Davies beat two players before slotting Hammill in on goal. The Liverpool midfielder, who captained his club to The FA Youth Cup last season, drilled the ball home with ease to restore parity in the game.

Derby County forward Barnes then gave the Three Lions the lead on the stroke of half time. Mark Davies was again at the heart of the move as he found space on the right flank, before playing in Barnes who held off the covering defender and slid the ball past Kazimierczak to send England into the break on a high.

Fabrice Muamba and Hammill came off at the interval to be replaced by Hogan Ephraim and Danny Haynes, with Seb Hines taking the captain's armband.

Vaughan extended the lead in fortunate fashion as he pounced on flick on from Haynes to divide the keeper and last defender and prod the ball goalwards. Unfortunately for Kazimierczak the ball went smoothly through his legs and into the goal, although there was an element of good fortune it was no more than the home side deserved.

It was almost four, just moments later as Olly Lancashire got on the end of an inswinging free kick and headed the ball towards the top corner, the Polish keeper redeemed his earlier indiscretion with a fine fingertip save.

Vaughan made it four, and doubled his tally for the night from the penalty spot. Davies ran at the Polish defence who were forced into bringing the midfielder down, and the referee had no choice but to point to the spot.

Teams:

England: 1 Jamie Annerson (Sheffield United), 2 Mark Little (Wolverhampton Wanderers) (16 Olly Lancashire (Southampton) 54), 3 Robbie Threlfall (Liverpool) (12 Rossi Jarvis (Torquay United on loan) 72), 4 Fabrice Muamba (c) (Birmingham City on loan) (15 Danny Haynes (Ipswich Town) 45), 5 Seb Hines (Middlesbrough), 6 Elliot Omozusi (Fulham, 7 Mark Davies (Wolverhampton Wanderers), 8 Michael Johnson (Manchester City), 9 James Vaughan (Everton) (14 Sam Hewson (Manchester United) 69), 10 Giles Barnes (Derby County) 11 Adam Hammill (Liverpool) (17 Hogan Ephraim (Colchester United on loan) 45)
Substitutes not used: 13 David Button (Tottenham Hotspur),

Goals: Hammill 40, Barnes 45, Vaughan 50, pen 66

Poland: 12 Przemyslaw Kazimierczak, 2 Grzegorz Piesio, 3 Arkadiusz Rys, 5 Blazej Augustyn, 6 Piotr Kasperkiewicz, 7 Maciej Korzym, 8 Radoslaw Mikolajczak, 9 Patryk Malecki, 10 Tomasz Cywka, 11 Kamil Oziemczuk, 16 Dawid Borys
Substitutes: 1 Dawid Pietrzkiewicz, 4 Tobiasz Mueller, 13 Maciej Tomczyk, 14 Sebastian Kurowski, 16 Michal Steinke, 17 Gregorz Goncerz, 18 Dawid Borys

Goals: Mikolajczak 14

Attendance: 10,375

Match Officials

Referee: Lee Probert

Assistant Referees: Steve Creighton and Steve Cook

Fourth Official: Andrew Sainsbury