Southgate pleased with draw

Gareth Southgate applauded England Under-21s for their fightback against Finland
10 September 2013

England Under-21s manager Gareth Southgate was encouraged by the way his side recovered to earn a point in Finland.

Having seen off Moldova with relative ease in his first match at the helm, the 1-1 draw in Tampere was an eventful second game at the helm for the recently-appointed Young Lions boss.

Moshtagh Yaghoubi gave Finland a shock 15th-minute lead after his whipped, long-range free-kick rather embarrassingly caught out goalkeeper Jack Butland.

England recovered well and equalised through Saido Berahino in the 67th minute, but any chances of a win were hampered by a red card for captain Andre Wisdom.

"We said at the beginning of the week that we won't go into every game and not make mistakes or not go behind, so it's how we respond to those things that matters," Southgate said after the European Championship qualifier.

"We've got to keep doing the right things and we kept passing and probing. We kept doing that when we went down to 10 men as well, which was really pleasing."

This is a new start for the Young Lions, set to a backdrop of discontent.

The Under-21s lost all three of their matches at the European Championships in the summer - a performance which led to the end of Stuart Pearce's six-year reign.

That no doubt played a part in Football Association chairman Greg Dyke's hard-hitting speech last week in which he bemoaned the state of the national game.

However, Southgate believes the current crop of young players can build a more successful future and has been particularly impressed by two players in the group.

"I thought James Ward-Prowse and Tom Carroll were terrific," he said of the Southampton and Tottenham midfielders.

"Even when we were down to 10 men, they kept probing and opening them up and did a disciplined job defensively when we needed that cover."

Southgate was also quick to praise his attackers Berahino and Harry Kane.

West Brom striker Berahino has scored in both his games for the Under-21s so far, while Spurs' Kane had an impact as soon as he came on in the second half.

"You think about doing it at half-time, but then you think to give it five or 10 minutes," Southgate said of the change, which came at the same time as Sammy Ameobi's introduction.

"But we felt we needed to give them something else to think about defensively. Saido had been a goal threat and we know that Harry's a goalscorer, so maybe that change of shape gives the opposition something to think about.

"It paid off for us, as we had that spell when Harry nearly gets the header and we hit the post when we were down to 10 men."

England have four points and sit third in Group One, having played half as many games as leaders Finland on eight points.

Southgate's side are in action again next month, travelling to San Marino before welcoming Lithuania to Ipswich's Portman Road.

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