John Peacock pleased with England's professionalism

Thursday 30 Oct 2014
England U17s head coach John Peacock
John Peacock hailed the professionalism of his England U17s as they finished their European Championship First Qualifying Round with a 100 per cent record.

Goals from Chris Willock, Will Patching and a superb individual run and finish from Jay DaSilva saw the Young Lions defeat France 3-1 in Paphos on Thursday.

France U17s 1-3 England U17s

UEFA European U17 Championship
First Qualifying Round
1pm, Thursday 30 October 2014
Paphiakos Stadium, Paphos, Cyprus

 


And after seeing his side secure top spot in group four ahead of the Elite Round draw next month, the England head coach had nothing but praise for his youngsters.

"They went about it very professionally today," Peacock told TheFA.com. "It's always good to keep challenging the players and we wanted to finish top of the group and I think they came out of it with a lot of credit."

"We knew that the French like to play out, which they did. For the first 20 minutes we did alright, but we perhaps didn't look as purposeful going forward as we could have done.

"Having said that, they didn't really cause us any real problems, and as the game went on we grew into it more.

"Obviously, scoring two very good goals was quite important for us at half time."

And having led by two goals at the break, Peacock challenged his men to see the job through in the second period, and he was delighted with the character shown.

"We kicked-off the second half having told them we wanted to keep a clean sheet, but within a few seconds we could have been three up - I'm not sure how Marcus Edwards missed that one but we'll have a look later," he said.

"It was a bit of a setback when they pulled it back, but they kept going and doing the right things and showed good character.

"Then for for Jay to score the way that he did, it was a first class goal, and a 3-1 win against a very good French team - it was a top performance."

By Gary Stonehouse Staff Writer