VIDEO: Keane to progress
Saturday, 26 May, 2012
Striker Will Keane reflects on 5-0 victory and focuses on Sunday's match with Montenegro.
By Nicholas Veevers
England hitman Will Keane helped the Young Lions get their Elite Qualifying Round week off to a good start on Friday as his second-half brace against Slovenia set up an important second-game showdown with Montenegro on Sunday.
Keane’s goals were added to by his Manchester United team-mate Tom Thorpe and Chelsea pair Nathaniel Chalobah and Todd Kane to give England a 5-0 win and put them on top of the group table ahead of the clash with second-placed Montenegro in Rochdale.
“We're delighted with the game overall,” Keane told FATV after the match.
“We knew it would be tough and that we'd have to show them respect and they showed in the first half that they were no pushovers and it was a close game.
"But we knew that if we could get that first goal it would open up and we had to make sure that when we got those chances we could tuck them away and we did that well in the second half.”
Montenegro are hot on England’s tails in the group though following their 3-0 win against Switzerland on Friday afternoon, and with only one team from the four nations involved able to progress to the Finals, the result of Sunday’s match at Spotland could go a long way to deciding who will be on the plane to Estonia for the Finals in July.
"We need to take the momentum from this game and push on and believe in ourselves,” explained Keane.
"They're (Montenegro) going to be full of confidence themselves, so it will be a tight game and we need to take what we've done in this game and build on that.”
Tickets for the game at Spotland cost just £3 for adults and £1 for concessions and are available on the evening. Kick-off at 7.30pm.