England Under-21 interim coach Ben Futcher hailed the Kenilworth Road experience as his Young Lions thrashed Austria 4-1 in the first youth international hosted by Luton Town in 31 years.
A brace from Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers and one each from Manchester City’s James McAtee and West Bromwich Albion’s Tom Fellows, saw the home nation to a comfortable victory, which arguably should have seen an even bigger scoreline.
Austria had keeper Nicolas Polster and some wayward finishing to thank for the score finishing at four, but there was more than enough to keep the noisy 5,295 crowd entertained.
Futcher, whose dad Paul was a Hatters hero in the 1970s, praised the ground and the atmosphere, saying it was, “outstanding.” He added: “Do you know what? It’s a really good stadium under the lights. The pitch is excellent, it’s nice and tight when it’s slicked up. I thought it suited us, so (it was) a really good atmosphere and a really nice place to come and play for the players.”
It took until the second half for England to assert their dominance, not that they weren’t creating chances, but a mistake allowed Austria to equalise and go into the half time interval on terms.
But after the break, was when the Young Lions roared, having been held to a stalemate three days earlier by Northern Ireland in European Championship qualifying.
Futcher said: “I thought we played some really good football all night and moved the ball through the pitch really well. We were patient when we needed to be but when we got around that final bit, we created some really chances, we moved the ball, we were running forward, passing forward. Some top players were really expressing themselves and that’s what I asked them to do.
“The big difference from Friday night was we got that first goal and when we did we looked a real threat all second half.”
Futcher took charge of the Young Lions during this international break after Lee Carsley moved up to be interim coach of the senior England side, following Gareth Southgate’s departure after the European Championship final defeat to Spain in the summer.
Asked what he’d learned about there under-21 side, Futcher said: “They’re a really talented group. They’re still young men so they’re going to make mistakes. They’re not going to get thing right all the time and we’ve got to accept that. We’re still learning and still trying to give them the experiences for when they get to the seniors. We’re here to help them, whilst winning games and playing good football.
“So, I’ve not learnt anything I didn’t expect, but they’re really talented and have been a real joy to work with.”
