England v Mexico
Toulon Tournament, Third Place Play-Off
Stade Mayol, Toulon
10 June 2005

England U20s coach Peter Taylor was naturally disappointed after seeing his side lose to France on penalties in the semi-finals of the Toulon Tournament, but he still thinks plenty of positives have come out of the competition.

England will now play Mexico this evening to decide which side will finish third and one thing that has pleased Taylor most has been the way the squad has gelled and stuck together.

"It's not easy when you have players from clubs who play in the Premiership and others who are two divisions below them but they have all been a pleasure to work with," he said.

"The Premiership boys have shown an excellent attitude,'' he continued. "I think the boys that have come from the lower divisions have appreciated how much they've been welcomed by the Premier boys, so everybody's been welcome and that's why they've been a really enjoyable group to take."

Though Liverpool's John Welsh took the captain's armband for the opening day victory over Tunisia, Nigel Reo-Coker has been the leader on the pitch ever since and his maturity has impressed his manager.

"I must speak about Nigel Reo-Coker, who has also been a very, very good captain. I think the way he's finished here he's going to have a good season," Taylor said.

"He knows he's still got to improve on certain things but he's had an excellent season and he's a great professional to be around.''

England, who have won the tournament four times, will now aim to finish in third place to give them their best performance at Toulon since 1995, when Ray Harford's squad, which included a young David Beckham, beat Scotland into third.

"We would like to finish off with a win because we've had a good tournament,'' Taylor said.

"We were a bit unlucky in the semi-final, it was a very tough game against the French but we played very well, so we've had a good tournament.

"You'd always like to finish off in a positive way and that's what we'll be looking to do.''

England have only been here in four of the nine tournaments since, but third place would still mark a hugely successful trip for Taylor and his youngsters.

"Fourth has been our best finish in recent years so that's a little thing we'll be going for,'' added the England coach.

"We would be very pleased with that, we will be trying to do that and, also, we're the only team that the French haven't beaten, so that's quite a good achievement for us.

"We will be putting the strongest team out available to try and win the match, although there's certain players who've had a lot of football here, and a lot of football all season as well, so I'm being a little bit careful with them too.''