Eastick's pride
Thursday, 11 August, 2011
Head Coach felt his side could've won, with their best show of World Cup.
By Nicholas Veevers in Armenia
England U20s Head Coach Brian Eastick admitted he could only feel pride at his players following their World Cup exit at the hands of Nigeria.
Whilst many will look at the result and see that the Young Lions had failed to score again, anyone who saw the game would've felt England were hard done by given the opportunities they created in the 90 minutes.
Unfortunately, they just couldn't find the finishing touch again and had to settle for a place in the last 16 of the competition but Eastick revealed that the players themselves were dismayed not to have seen off their African opponents on this occasion.
"It's a very disappointed dressing room in there and they feel that they should have won this game," he said. "It was certainly our best performance from these four games out here.
"In the second half, we created chances but unfortunately, we didn't convert any of them.
"So in terms of the result, it was disappointing but in terms of education for the players, it's been a great success.
"I'm very proud of the players though, they have done their country proud over the last two weeks and every single one of them will go back to their clubs a better player."
The squad have been away for almost a month now, having taken in a training camp in the USA before arriving in South America well over two weeks ago and Eastick believes that the experience which each and every one of them will have gained from the whole trip will only benefit them in the future as both footballers and people.
"There's certainly not been any losers from this," he added.
"We've played four games against four top quality opponents and only conceded one goal and been unfortunate not to go to the Quarter Final.
"You can't buy this sort of experience and the players have done marvellously well after being thrown together for the first time three weeks or so ago.
"Anyone who levels a criticism at them about scoring no goals is being very harsh.
"We created as many chances as Nigeria in this game and it swung from end to end in the second-half, but I'm proud of the players and we could have won this game tonight."