Peacock pleased with progress
Sunday, 26 June, 2011
Head Coach's delight at reaching latter stages of World Cup.
By James Marshall in Torreon
England U17 Head Coach John Peacock was pleased with his side’s performance against Uruguay on Saturday, when they ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from captain Nathaniel Chalobah and Max Clayton to top Group C and breeze through into the Second Round of the competition..
“I’m very pleased with the team’s performance today” said Peacock after the game in Torreon.
“I hope we can continue the quality of play that we have been producing in the group stages and take it forward into our next game. We have now gone three games unbeaten and finished top of the group, so I can’t ask for much more than that.”
Peacock insists there is always room for improvement in any team, but thought his team defended well and worked hard for the result in order to leap-frog the South Americans and into top spot in the table.
“There is always room for improvement, I am very pleased we didn’t concede any goals today and we played the game in the correct manner.
"It was extremely difficult playing in the heat in the middle of the day, so we had to work very hard and maintain procession of the ball. Obviously we had to defend well when we didn’t have the ball, which we did very well today.
"We overcame a good side in Uruguay today and that will give the side confidence moving into the latter stages of the competition.”
Peacock also pointed out that it was important for his side to win the group in order to play back in Pachuca, where the climate is cooler and the team are already familiar with the surroundings having played their first two games there.
“We have an extra day to recover now and prepare for the last 16," he added. "I am happy we are heading back to Pachuca, where the boys are used to the training facilities and the stadium and we are looking forward to the next round now.”
“It’s knock-out football now and we are in a positive frame of mind after the result today, we will find out on Sunday who we are playing when all the group games have been played, and we are looking forward to the challenge whoever it is.”
Whilst England don't know their opponents yet, they do know that they will be playing on Thursday afternoon at 3pm local time. (9pm BST).