ENGLAND UNDER-20

 

RUSSIA UNDER-20

 

2-0

Onuoha 4, Sam 78

 


26 January 2005  
England 2-0 Russia: Highlights

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International Friendly
08 February 2005
Charlton Athletic FC, The Valley

England Under-20s manager John Peacock was delighted with his team's 2-0 over Russia at The Valley last night.

This was their last game before the England youngsters compete in the Toulon tournament in June.

Goals from Chinedum Onuoha and Lloyd Sam sealed the win in his first game in charge of the England youngsters.

"That was very pleasing tonight," he said afterwards: "That is their second game this year and another clean sheet which is obviously important.

"I think that we should have had the game a little more clean cut by half-time, but they continue to keep performing and I am delighted with the second goal.

"The Toulon tournament is the next thing on the agenda and I will sit down with Peter Taylor and work out the squad for that tournament.

"There are several players that have done themselves credit tonight and all 17 contributed to the occasion."

"We always say that if the performance is great then the result comes along. We had a game plan to start with, which was to pressurise much further up the pitch than we did against Holland.

"We started of very well and we did put them under immense pressure," he added. "There were a few set plays that we didn't quite finish off, but we were very much in the ascendancy in the first half and Russia, to their credit came back strong in the second half."

Bradley Wright-Phillips was on of three players making their debuts for the national side along with Chinedum Onuoha Daniel Graham who started the game.

Manchester City's Onuoha marked his first cap by opening the scoring after just five 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 City, pulled off a magnificent save to deny Igor Shevchenko who's 20-yard free-kick looked to be heading for the top corner following an altercation in which both captains were booked after the two teams squared-up.

Second-half substitute Lloyd Sam sealed the win with ten minutes to go with his first touch of the ball.

The Charlton youngster controlled the impressive Chaplow's cross with a neat first touch and fired the ball past Budakov.

"I am very pleased with the new guys tonight," continued Peacock. "We started with two of them. Danny Graham up front and I thought that he worked tirelessly and had a few chances that I sure that, on another day, he would have tucked away.

"Chinedum Onuoha dropped in nicely at the back there and scored a goal which is a very pleasing start for him.

"Bradley Wright-Phillips came on at half time and made a good contribution. He has got a lot of pace and is a very direct player.

"Again he had a chance and on another day that would have gone in. All players that are very direct and have a lot of pace are what the crowd likes to see."