England's future is looking bright

HAPPY . . . England coach Paul Williams

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A SMALL but noisy crowd will have been encouraged by what they saw at Athletic's SportsDirect.com Park stadium last night as England under-20s defeated their Netherlands counterparts 2-0.

The future of the English national team appears to be in reasonably safe hands for now after early goals from Patrick Roberts - a Manchester City forward currently on loan at Celtic - and Adam Armstrong - a Newcastle front-man who is on loan at Barnsley - got the Young Lions off to a perfect start in their four-team international tournament.

Interim head coach Paul Williams, who has temporarily replaced Aidy Boothroyd after he moved up to the under-21s role following Gareth Southgate's elevation to senior England team duty, told the Chronicle: "I was really pleased with the goals and the performance of the team.

"We kept possession really well and some of the movement off the ball was good.

"I just thought the game got a bit scrappy in the second half and we lost control of it a little.

"But we soon got that back late on and could have gone on to score a few more goals."

The cream of England's young crop now head off to take on Germany at the John Smith's Stadium in Huddersfield tomorrow, before the USA provide the opposition at Rochdale's Crown Oil Arena on Monday. Both those games kick-off at 7pm.

Last night, in front of a crowd approaching 1,000, England got off to a flying start by scoring both goals in the opening 12 minutes.

The impressive Roberts latched on to a through-ball before lashing crisply into the corner of the net from 15 yards.

Armstrong doubled the lead when he followed up to slot home after an initial strike was parried by Dutch goalkeeper Joel Drommell.

Later in the game Harry Chapman and Roberts were both denied by the woodwork as England came close to extending their lead.

Meanwhile, Williams was clearly pleased that Oldham had been chosen as one of the venues for the three international clashes.

A former midfielder with Derby, Coventry and Southampton, he played at Boundary Park on a number of occasions.

He said: "The people in Oldham have been fantastic with us all. And I know it's still quite early in the season, but the pitch is terrific too.

"I've not been here for a long time, but the facilities on offer were first-class and the new stand is really impressive."

England starting XI: Southwood (Reading), Walker-Peters (Tottenham), Clarke-Salter (Bristol Rovers, on loan from Chelsea), Tuanzebe (MAN UTD), Tafari Moore (Arsenal), Tomori (Chelsea), Dowell (Everton), Reed (Sheffield Utd), P Roberts (Celtic, on loan from MAN CITY), Armstrong (Barnsley, on loan from Newcastle), Chapman (Sheffield Utd). Subs used: Cook (Bournemouth), C Roberts (Newcastle), Calvert-Lewin (Everton). Subs not used: Kenny (Everton), Tayler Moore (Bristol City), Lookman (Charlton), Solanke (Chelsea), Henderson (Grimsby, on loan from MAN UTD), Oxford (West Ham), Maitland-Niles (Arsenal), Ejaria (Liverpool).