Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers’ brace helped give Interim England U21 Head Coach Ben Futcher his first win in charge of the side. A man of the match display from Newcastle United’s Lewis Hall also provided two assists in the second half. Daniel Wales reports from Kenilworth Road.
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00:00A crisp September night in Luton provided the perfect conditions for a game of international
00:06football.
00:07Kenilworth Road had an excitement about it pre-match, which continued inside the tightly
00:12packed stadium in the lead-up to kick-off.
00:16England got proceedings underway, but it was Austria who forced the first save, as Christoph
00:21Lange's well-struck free-kick saw James Beadle have to get down low to divert it away from
00:26goal.
00:28By the time that the quarter-hour was reached, England were on top, a powerful drive from
00:33Morgan Rodgers before a disguised pass allowed Liam De Lappe to shoot, but he was denied.
00:40With 24 minutes on the clock complacency from Florian Michelet at the back for Austria allowed
00:45James McAtee to pick his pocket, with Michelet then compounding his misery by bringing down
00:50the England midfielder for a penalty.
00:53Rodgers stepped up to dispatch the spot kick.
00:57Then against the run of play, Austria's best player of the first half, Tierno Balow, stole
01:01the ball high up and calmly slotted home from 20 yards.
01:06Into the second half, it was all England.
01:09They retook the lead thanks to Morgan Rodgers' cultured finish, and then made it three soon
01:13after when James McAtee volleyed home Lewis Hall's inch-perfect cross.
01:19England got a fourth with ten to go.
01:21Lewis Hall dispossessed his man on the left, drove forward and again delivered a sublime
01:25ball to find the incoming Tom Fellows.
01:28The game finished a rather one-sided four goals to one.
01:34After the final whistle, Interim Head Coach of England Under-21s Ben Fischer gave his
01:38thoughts on the encounter.
01:42So yeah, really positive night, some really good performances, good team performance,
01:45so we can kind of go away tonight really happy, so it was good.
01:50Well I thought we played some really good football all night, I thought we moved the
01:53ball through the pitch well, we were patient as we needed to be, but when we got around
01:57that final bit, we created some really good chances and we moved the ball, we were running
02:01forward, passing forward, some top players were really expressing themselves and that's
02:05what I asked them to do.
02:06The big difference tonight, Friday, was we kind of got that first goal, and when we did
02:11as I say, we looked a real threat then.
02:13The first goal is important, obviously we got it, but then we got our noses in front
02:17again, I think the big difference is, compared to the other night, we got that goal and once
02:22you go ahead, teams have to open up, we've got players who are devastating and can be.
02:27When they really concentrate and focus on that final bit, like we did, they're a really
02:31talented group and they've shown it tonight.
02:33They're really good people, really talented group, they're still young men so they're
02:39going to make mistakes, they're not going to get things right all the time, we've got
02:41to accept that, we're still learning, we're still trying to give them the experiences,
02:44when they get to the seniors, we're here to help them, whilst winning games and playing
02:48good football.
02:50I've not learned anything that I didn't expect, they're really talented, they've been a real
02:54joy to work with.