Peacock confident of top spot
Thursday, 23 June, 2011
Three Lions Coach optimistic despite dropping points against Canada.
By James Marshall in Pachuca
Click here to watch highlights of the game on FIFA.com
After a disappointing 2-2 draw against Canada, England U17 Head Coach John Peacock remained optimistic that his side can progress as group winners and beat Uruguay in Torreon on Saturday.
The Young Lions seemed well in control of their second group game in Mexico with goals from Adam Morgan and Blair Turgott putting them in the lead twice in the second half. However, Canada snatched a dramatic point with an out of the ordinary goal from Canucks goalkeeper Quillan Roberts in the closing stages.
"Obviously we are disappointed with the draw tonight, we were the better team, we led in the game twice, but with five minutes left we conceded a freak goal and that’s football," said Peacock.
"However we still have four points from two games, and we are still optimistic about beating Uruguay on Saturday and topping the group.”
England enjoyed the majority of the possession and created a number of opportunities during the 90 minutes, so could quite easily have been well in front before the late equaliser from Williams and Peacock was left to rue those chances.
“We had a lot of chances tonight but didn’t take them all," he added. "I thought the turning point in the game was when we hit the post at 2-1, if that had gone in it would have made it 3-1, so that was a bit of a defining moment in the game in my opinion. Obviously the goal that the Canadians scored with five minutes to go was a freak and bizarre goal.”
Peacock was also full of praise in his post match press conference for the opposition. It is the first time in 16 years that Canada have qualified for a World Cup and they were clearly delighted to get a point at the final whistle.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Canada,” said Peacock. “I thought they had a great team spirit, they worked extremely hard throughout the 90 minutes and they made it very difficult for us tonight, they played the game in the correct manner and never gave up.”
England now move onto Torreon, where they will play Uruguay to decide the group on Saturday. Canada remain in Pachuca, where they will face Rwanda with hopes still alive of reaching the last 16 of the competition.