Consistency was the key for head coach Kenny Swain as his England U16 side swept aside Denmark at St. George’s Park on Tuesday.
A brace from Yan Dhanda and strikes from Zachary Dearnley and Jahmal Hector Ingram sealed an emphatic victory for the Young Lions, and the levels of performance his side are showing are leaving Swain a happy man.
“The result was good, but the performance overall, considering that we have made seven or eight changes from the first game, was too,” explained Swain.
England U16s 4-1 Denmark
UEFA Development Tournament 5pmTuesday 11 February
St. George's Park
“It’s always very difficult to keep a consistent performance but I think they did that for the most part of the game.”
England created the majority of chances against the Danes and could easily have come away with another two or three goals to their name, but the visitors also played their part in an entertaining game, and the hosts had goalkeeper Aston Oxborough to thank several times.
With the attacking verve shown by his side, Swain is satisfied with the offensive side of his squad, but says work must be done before their final game against Belgium on Friday.
He added: “It’s been a feature all year that we’ve been able to create chances. We haven’t taken as many as we’d have liked, but our achilles heel has been our defending.
"We caused ourselves a few problems unnecessarily but we still managed to keep the composure to keep playing, especially in pressurised areas, and I thought they did very well in that respect.
“The important thing now is they remain focussed and show the appetite that they’ve shown in the matches and in training and if they can take that into the game with Belgium then we’ll be delighted that they can produce consistent performances.”
Watch Kenny Swain’s interview in full via the video player above
