England

5-0

Slovakia

Richardson (pen) 35, Reo-Coker 61, Taylor 77, Huddlestone 82, Lita 84


International Under-21 Friendly
8pm, Tuesday 5 June, 2007
Carrow Road, Norwich City FC

England Under-21 Coach Stuart Pearce played down his team’s emphatic 5-0 victory over Slovakia, but was very pleased with the overall outcome of their final preparation game before they fly to Holland later this week.

The Three Lions were by far the better side throughout the match at Carrow Road, but Pearce said that he felt his side played within themselves during a first half that saw England only find the net once.

Kieran Richardson converted a 35th minute penalty following a foul on Ashley Young, which put England in front. But, despite claims for another penalty and almost incessant one-way traffic, it wasn’t until Nigel Reo-Coker’s goal just after the hour mark – his first for the Under-21s – when the home side began to make the pressure really count.

“I was a little bit disappointed at half time, I don’t think we took the game to the opposition enough,” said Pearce.

“But in the second half I was more than pleased with it. I thought we got on the front foot, pressed them a touch harder up the pitch and there was a lot of good individual and collective performances by them, too.

“You ask any manager, they don’t want to concede a goal. We achieved that. You want to get a bit of confidence in finding the back of the net, we certainly achieved that.”

He continued: “They should be pleased with their night’s work but know full well that they’ll have to crank it up a couple of gears if they are going to be successful next week.”

One thing that did please Pearce was his findings from the penalty shoot-out after the game, which England won 4-3. It was always part of the plan, regardless of the result, as the Coach, who has himself suffered at the hands of the dreaded penalties in major tournaments, is leaving no stone unturned in preparation for the UEFA Under-21 Championship.

Pearce was part of the England side knocked out on penalties twice, first to West Germany at the 1990 World Cup, then six years later, again to the Germans, at Euro ’96, and knows better that most the importance of having confidence from 12-yards.

“Since we’ve met this summer after every training session we’ve had a penalty shoot-out amongst ourselves,” he revealed. “Tonight was a great opportunity to get involved with that in front of a big crowd.

“I’ve been to three championships and lost two on penalties, so for me as a manager not to address that leading up to a competition and do everything we possibly can for that eventuality would be folly.

“It’s not just giving them the pressure of going to take a penalty, but looking at the technique of the players and giving feedback to what their best penalty is statistically.

“Steve Wigley’s probably got to take some credit, we tried to get it laid on at Wembley, but it didn’t happen against the Italians, but we’re pleased that it’s worked well in training and we’re pleased that it’s worked well tonight.

He added: “We’ve got a lot of information now from penalties. I have an inkling of what I thought was the best penalty, and the stats that I’m seeing now are bearing out my thoughts.

“Both teams addressed it in the right manner and took it very seriously and it was ideal for us. The crowd played their part, they stayed until the end, and for us it’s all part of the preparation.

“Let alone the defending we did tonight, the midfield play and the attacking. The penalties at the end of it might just be the thing that wins us a trophy this summer.”

England
1 Joe Hart, 2 Nedum Onuoha (15 Leighton Baines, 46), 3 Justin Hoyte (12 Liam Rosenior, 71), 4 Tom Huddlestone, 5 Steven Taylor, 6 Gary Cahill, 7 Nigel Reo-Coker (c)(18 Leroy Lita, 62), 8 James Milner (21 Wayne Routledge, 46), 9 David Nugent (19 Matt Derbyshire, 71), 10 Ashley Young (16 Peter Whittingham, 78), 11 Kieran Richardson (17 Mark Noble, 46)
Subs not used: 13 Ben Alnwick, 14 Anton Ferdinand, 20 James Vaughan

Coach
Stuart Pearce

Slovakia
1 Lubos Kamenar, 2 Peter Pekarik (c), 3 Jan Maslo, 4 Lukas Bakos (16 Jan Nemcek, 89), 5 Michal Jonas, 6 Matej Izvolt (18 Zoltan Harsanyi, 72), 7 Ivan Lisivka, 8 Patrik Mraz, 9 Pavol Jurco, 10 Lukas Opiela, 11 Erik Jendrisek (13 Tomas Majtan, 46)
Subs not used: 12 Roman Smieska, 14 Karol Karlik, 15 Frantisek Viskup, 17 Erik Grendel

Manager
Jozef Barmos

Referee Mark Whitby (Wales)
Assistant Referee Alun Boore (Wales) and Brian James (Wales)
Fourth Official Kevin Friend (England)

Attendance 20,193

TheFA.com Man of the Match Ashley Young