VIDEO: Jones' disappointment
Monday, 20 June, 2011
Three Lions and captain reflects on Euro exit.
Click here to watch the video interview with Jones and Chris Smalling.
England's Phil Jones couldn't hide his disappointment on Sunday night, as the Under-21s crashed out of the European Championship just shy of the semi-final.
It looked as though Stuart Pearce's side would be going through to the last four when Danny Welbeck headed England in front with just over ten minutes left to play.
But two late goals from Czech Republic swung the game back in their favour, leaving the Three Lions third in the group and on the way home.
"We're disappointed, distraught, gutted and all of those words sum up how we're feeling," Jones told FATV.
"We'll take it in our stride and improve and we can only get better than that.
"We probably got penalised for not playing as well as we could in the first two games (against Spain and Ukraine), but we knew what we had to do today."
Jones was one of England's best players in the Finals and was rewarded for his performances with the captain's armband for the match. And that was a big honour for the 19-year-old, who can still feature for Pearce's side in the next Euro campaign.
"It was a massive honour for me to captain the team and to represent England at any level is an honour," he added.
"It's just disappointing as we were comfortable throughout the game and they didn't cause us too many problems but that's football."