England 2-0 Russia

International Friendly
08 February 2005
Charlton Athletic FC, The Valley

Bradley Wright-Phillips made his England debut as part of the Under-20 side who beat Russia 2-0 last night, watched by his dad Ian Wright, with goals from Chinedum Onuoha and Lloyd Sam. There was a crowd of 10,426 at The Valley.

Half-time substitute Wright-Phillips, 19, was one of three debutants in new boss John Peacock's side along with Onuoha and Daniel Graham who started the game.

Manchester City's Onuoha marked his first cap by opening the scoring after just four minutes when he followed up his own header from Gary Borrowdale's free-kick, which was parried by Alexandre Budakov, to smash the ball home from close range.

Lee Croft should have doubled England's lead just ten minutes later when a superb ball from Richard Chaplow sent him through on goal, but the Manchester City man hit the ball straight at the advancing Budakov.

Five minutes before the break Manchester United's Luke Steele, currently on loan at Coventry, pulled off a magnificent save to deny Igor Shevchenko whose 20-yard free-kick looked to be heading for thetop corner. This followed an altercation in which both captains were booked after the two teams squared-up.

Cherno Samba missed good opportunities in either half for England, having his volley cleared off the line in the first half and shooting high over an unguarded net just after the restart.

Midway through the second half substitute 'keeper Ross Turnbull denied Anton Arkipov a certain equaliser by diving at his feet when clean through.

Second-half substitute Sam sealed the win on 78 minutes,  controlling Chaplow's deep cross with a neat first touch and firing the ball past Budakov. The Charlton youngster had only been on the field for about 20 seconds.

Match Details: England 2-0 Russia

England: Steele (Turnbull, 45), Raven (Francis, 45), Cahill, Onuoha (Fontaine, 55), Borrowdale, Samba (Sam, 77), Chaplow, Gardner, Croft (Wright-Phillips, 45), Graham, Kilkenny (Long, 65).

Goals: Onuoha 4, Sam 78

Russia: Budkov; Dimidko (Bonadyssenko, 60), Gorelov, Klimov, Gilmullin; Gorbanets (Nikolaev, 90), Kharabara (Popov, 80), Trinitatskiy, Tumasyan (Khodosvo, 82), Shevchenko, Arkipov.
Subs not used: Gorchkov, Karev, Aleksunin.