sport

PEARCE RAISES THE ALARM

Pearce - still has work to do.

England Under-21 coach Stuart Pearce claimed that his young side had been given a wake-up call by a battling Welsh outfit in a cracking European Championship play-off first leg at Ninian Park.

Wales were ahead through Simon Church early on and despite goals from David Wheater and Adam Johnson, the 19 year-old Reading striker struck again minutes from the break.

England had to fight for their lives and it took a classy Gabriel Agbonlahor flick with 29 minutes left to claim victory and a major advantage in Tuesday's second-leg at Villa Park.

Pearce admitted: "My team were told in the dressing room straight afterwards that they still have hard work to do. This is about professionalism now and we had a big, big wake-up call in the first-leg.

"The game had everything, and it was just what I thought it would be like.

"Wales are a very good side with spirit, as are England. The game was a credit to both teams.

"But I suppose that when people keep telling you that it is going to be a comfortable game, maybe that is why we had such a shaky start.

"We defended too deep and Wales are a good side and exploited that. But once we got on top we should have gone on to nail them more."

He added: "It is a fantastic learning curve for my boys. We knew what the Welsh would offer, they are a fantastically good side and they won their group ahead of France and Romania.

"We were under no illusions, they can score goals. We do not often concede goals, let alone two.

"We are in for another exciting game on Tuesday at Villa Park. We wanted to win and we will want to win in the second-leg."

Wales boss Brian Flynn hailed the efforts of his team, but complained about England's winning goal and the nationality of the officials.

Flynn said: "I was very disappointed with their third goal. A high boot was not penalised, when one of our lads earlier on had been penalised for the same thing.

"And I was amazed we had Romanian officials having beaten them in the qualifying match. I didn't mention it before, but there are 50-odd other countries, so why did we get Romanians.

"The linesman was just five yards away from the incident and did nothing.

"Church has been a fantastic impact player for us coming off the bench. Now he is starting matches and he has shown some great runs and is scoring goals.

"Aaron Ramsey was excellent, and he won't be with us much longer. But it is amazing to think that he will still qualify for the under-21s in four years.

"If we put in another performance like that on Tuesday, England will know they have been in a game."

He added: "The fans did us proud and the team made them proud to be Welsh. It was a disappointing result but every single one of my lads gave everything for the cause.

"The fans will be disappointing going home, but they will have had their hearts warmed.

"But we can still do it, we lost at home to Romania and then won away, but it is a tough task for us now, England have quality players.

"It will be a good game and we are looking forward to it. We know we can score twice at Villa Park, and we must do that to go through.

"Simon Church did so well, I was hoping for a headline that said 'Hero Church answers our prayers.' but it wasn't to be."