Manchester United duo, Daniel Welbeck and Daniel Drinkwater, lead England to victory over Austria.

England 2-0 Austria
7pm, Wednesday 16 April
Victoria Park, Hartlepool United FC

Daniel Welbeck’s first team experience at Manchester United this season paid dividends as England U18s finished their 2007-08 campaign undefeated with a 2-0 win over Austria at Hartlepool United.

The Old Trafford youngster has been mixing it up with the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo this term and was an unused sub against Roma in the Champions League last week.

Both local lad, Jonathan Franks, and Colchester United’s Medy Elito got the crowd on their feet with a pair of mazy runs before Welbeck put England in front on the ten minute mark.

Spurs striker, Daniel Rose, proved too hot for the Austrian defence to handle when he skipped into the box before setting up Welbeck, who stabbed home from five yards.

Austria could have bagged an immediate reply when Ryan Bennett lost possession on the edge of the box to Krenn but England skipper, Jordan Spence, spared the Grimsby Town youngster’s blushes with a great block tackle.

And Welbeck almost doubled England’s lead on 20 minutes when he beat Lindner to Elito’s high through pass before curling the ball against the bar from the tightest of angles.

The visitors were relieved to escape with just a goal deficit at the break with both Welbeck and Rose keeping Lindner on his toes in the Austrian goal before Spence volleyed over the bar in added on time.

Rose was still hunting down goal in the second half when he saw a left foot volley flash wide on the hour mark while England keeper Ben Amos got his hands stung in the Hartlepool cold with two long range strikes from Kelly.

Ashley Chambers then replaced Rose and saw a right foot volley go close while Drinkwater was twice denied in the space of ten seconds by the Austrian backline with Lindner eventually pushing the Manchester United midfielder’s scissor kick past the post for a corner.

But Drinkwater finally beat Lindner with a superb curling free-kick in injury time from the edge of the box to seal a fine win for Brian Eastick’s side.

The victory followed up last year's 2-0 win over Ghana at Gillingham.

England: 1 Ben Amos (13 Mark Oxley, 46), 2 Gavin Hoyte, 3 Lee Hills (16 James Reid, 71), 4 Daniel Gosling (12 Richard Smallwood, 46), 5 Ryan Bennett, 6 Jordan Spence, 7 Jonathan Franks (17 Kyle Bennett, 46) 8 Daniel Drinkwater, 9 Daniel Welbeck, 10 Daniel Rose (14 Ashley Chambers, 71), 11 Medy Elito (15 Tom Elliott, 79)

Austria: 1 Heinz Lindner, 2 Florian Hart, 5. Kevin Hacker (7 Markus Obernosterer, 46), 8 Georg Krenn, 9 Thomas Kelly, 10 Christoph Kropfl, 11 Dieter Elsneg 12 Thomas Hopfer (13 Christoph Kobleder, 46), 14 Christopher Drazan, 16 Georg Grasser (15 Daniel Schopf, 46), 18 Michael Popp (6 Cem Tosun, 46)
Substitutes not used: 21 Adolf Kaiser, 7 David Harrer, 19 Patrick Derdak

Goals: Welbeck 10, Drinkwater 90

Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Tony Harrington & Geoff Eltringham
Fourth Official: Mark Brown

Attendance: 2,306