England

1-0

Montenegro

Matt Derbyshire 20

 

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifier
8pm, Friday 12 October 2007
Leicester City FC, Walkers Stadium

England Under-21s Coach Stuart Pearce was pleased with his side's third consecutive qualifying win, but admitted they'll need to up their game when they travel to Ireland to maintain their 100% record.

Steven Taylor's header onto the post after ten minutes sparked England into life, and when Matt Derbyshire slotted home soon after to capitalise on England's dominance, it looked like they go on to beat Montenegro at a canter.

However, despite enjoying much more of the ball and the Lion's share of chances, Pearce's side couldn't finish the game off.

But with Portugal losing in Bulgaria earlier on Friday evening, a result was paramount for England as they moved three points clear at the top of Group Three.

"We won playing not particularly well," said Pearce after the match in Leicester, "We've had three wins on the bounce with three clean sheets but we are going to have to play better than that on Tuesday against Ireland."

"The boys were a bit quiet in the dressing room compared to the two wins in Eastern Europe at the start of the campaign. They knew they didn't play as well as they were hoping to. If you can learn and keep winning it is a great position to be in."

He added: "We didn't play particularly well for 90 minutes, we were scratchy then got our noses in front. We were hoping for the second goal but gave the ball away too cheaply."

Before the Under-21s fly out to Cork, they'll be at Wembley on Saturday to see the Steve McClaren's team take on Estonia in their Euro 2008 qualifier and Pearce believes it's an opportunity for his young team to experience the senior set-up. They will also have one eye on Paris as England meet France in the Rugby World Cup semi-final.

"We've kicked-off the weekend of English sport with a victory. It's all on to Wembley - we're all going there to watch as a group.

"Then it's back to the hotel for dinner and we'll watch the rugby team. The whole nation will be watching and if we can sweep the board with victories there will be a lovely feel-good factor in the country."

England
1 Joe Hart, 2 Martin Cranie, 3 Andrew Taylor, 4 Andrew Surman (14 Fabrice Muamba, 30), 5 Steven Taylor (c), 6 Nedum Onuoha, 7 James Milner, 8 Tom Huddlestone, 9 Matt Derbyshire (17 Cameron Jerome, 79), 10 Gabriel Agbonlahor (16 Michael Kightly, 83), 11 Theo Walcott.
Subs not used 12 David Wheater, 13 Ben Alnwick, 15 Adam Johnson, 18 Luke Moore

Coach Stuart Pearce

Bookings none

Montenegro
1 Ivan Janjusevic, 2 Aleksander Radovic, 3 Blazo Igumanovic, 5 Milko Novakovic, 6 Predrag Brnovic, 7 Darko Boskovic (17 Zijad Adrovic, 87), 8 Stevan Jovetic (c), 10 Marko Cetkovic (18 Goran Vujovic, 74), 14 Marko Vidovic, 20 Ivan Fatic, 22 Luka Tiodorovic (9 Krsto Zvicer, 90)
Subs not used 11 Petar Vukcevic, 12 Bojan Radanovic, 15 Mijusko Bojovic, 16 Miroje Jovanovic

Coach Dusan Vlaisavljevic

Bookings Aleksander Radovic, 85

Referee Anders Hermansen (Denmark)
Assistant Referees Henrik Sonderby and Niels Hog (Denmark)

Fourth Official Michael Johansen (Denmark)

Attendance 20,022