VIDEO: Peacock reflects on 'mixed week'
Monday, 03 September, 2012
U17s miss out on SGP Tournament title, but John Peacock finds plenty of positives.
England U17s Head Coach
John Peacock saw his squad lose out to the eventual winners of the St.George's Park International Tournament on Sunday, with a narrow 1-0 reverse against Portugal proving enough to seal the title for the visitors.
And Peacock felt that his team's display was a fair reflection of the Tournament itself, as the Young Lions struggled to find the real consistency that they were aiming for.
After a lively and fluent first-half performance from England, but without any goals to show for it, Portugal scored their winner early in the second half and that proved to be enough for them to seal this year's title.
"It was a mixed performance and we've been like that all week," Peacock explained after the game.
"We've seen some very, very good things, like the first-half against Italy and today, we passed it very well in the first period, but didn't get the goal that we might have deserved.
"We lost our way in the second half and then went a bit 'individual' and didn't really do our thing collectively."
It's all been an important learning curve for the squad though, as they gear up for a trip to Estonia in October and their first taste of a UEFA European Championship qualifying tournament.
"We would've liked to have won the tournament this week, there's no doubt about that and to get them to understand how to win a tournament is important," added Peacock.
"In a few months, we're going into the European qualifiers where we have to win really, but equally important was to give everyone a chance to show what they can do and everyone's had an equal amount of time on the pitch and that's a real positive."