John Peacock put Friday's win over Israel down to the hard work put in on the training pitch.

England 1-0 Israel
The FA International U17 Tournament
7pm, Friday 29 August 2008
London Road, Peterborough United FC 
Click here for tournament details.

England U17s Head Coach John Peacock was pleased to see the hard work his squad had put in during training paid off on Friday night when they picked up a deserved win against Israel.

After Wednesday’s narrow defeat against Portugal, Peacock and his staff highlighted the goals conceded and made sure the squad were more than aware of not allowing that to happen again against Israel.

It worked too, as the Young Lions put in a solid display at the back and got the victory courtesy of substitute Jacob Walcott’s goal in the second half.

England had to be patient and determined too as they found a stout Israel team ahead of them before Walcott’s 77th minute winner.

“There was lots of determination and I had set the task for the lads today to first of all come away with a clean sheet and to learn from the mistakes on Wednesday,” revealed Peacock.

“Secondly, we wanted to try and put three points on the table and they’ve done that.

“All in all, it was a tough game for us, but we’ve come out on top and it sets it up quite nicely for Sunday’s game.”

It had looked like it was going to be a frustrating evening for England, as they found the Israelis hard to break down in the first half, but the Lions never gave up and eventually got their reward.

“We had chances, but in the first half we were very naïve and we must have been caught offside ten or eleven times,” revealed Peacock.

“We spoke about that at half time and we were a little more clever with our runs and more patient when we got through on goal.

“To try and break them down is never easy, but we stuck to the task and got the result.”

Peacock also spoke of his joy for Walcott, who had been unfortunate not to find the net against Portugal on Wednesday when he saw a second half shot bounce off the post and across the goal line.

“I thought Jacob started very well on Wednesday in the first 30 minutes in particular, his link up play was good and he was penetrating behind the back line of Portugal,” he explained.

“He didn’t score, but he had a chance and hit the post so I’m delighted to see him come on and get the goal he deserved tonight.”