England's youngsters edge out Wales

Filed in archive England on October 14, 2008

England under 21s scraped through to the European Championship finals with a battling and spirited, if largely unimpressive, aggregate win over Wales.

A 2-2 draw at Aston Villa following on from the 3-2 win in Cardiff was enough to see Stuart Pearce's young men looking forward to spending next Summer in Sweden.

It all looked easy enough when Tom Huddlestone put England ahead but Wales replied with a great strike from Aaron Ramsey and a cool finish from Simon Church, to make the tie level.

An unfortunate own goal by Wolves' teenage striker Sam Vokes gave England the advantage again and they managed to hang on to it despite having Huddlestone sent off twenty-five minutes from the end.

All the goals came in a frantic first half that England dominated early on, but somehow allowed Wales to get back in the game.

The second half was a calmer affair and England looked reasonably comfortable until Huddlestone's moment of madness after which it was 'all hands to the pump'.

Stuart Pearce will be very relieved to have got this one out of the way and to be able to start planning for next Summer.