ENGLAND'S renaissance under Sven Goran Eriksson gathered pace last night after his mentor David Platt steered the Under 21s into next summer's European Championship finals.
When Platt succeeded Howard Wilkinson in June his side were staring elimination in the face after a disastrous defeat at the hands of Greece.
But in a mirror image of the job Eriksson has done at senior level, the former Nottingham Forest chief completed a remarkable recovery at Pride Park as England booked their place as one of eight finalists thanks to a late winner from Michael Carrick.
Now Platt has set his sights on winning next summer's tournament after declaring the future's bright for his young scholars.
"Our focus was to qualify and now it has to be to win it," said Platt. "Why not believe we can win it? We have the players. I can pick a squad of 20 which will be very strong and it's going to be difficult to leave people out."
Oozing class in every department, the technically-superior Dutch zipped the ball around with real confidence, carving open the England defence at will at times courtesy of some slick approach play.
But time and again Liverpool shot-stopper Chris Kirkland came to the rescue with a string of top-class saves.
The impressive Patrick Ax had the clearest chance of the first half but Kirkland excelled with a stunning reflex stop. He eclipsed even that, however, with second half blocks to deny both Rafael Van Der Vaart and Ali Boussaboun.
England, for their part, rarely hit top gear as Carrick, Jermain Defoe and Shola Ameobi all wasted inviting openings.
But they finally secured qualification in the 73rd when sub Jonathan Greening found Ameobi in the box and the Newcastle forward turned smartly before drilling a ball across the box which Carrick nudged home. "We rode our luck a bit because the Dutch came here and did very, very well and maybe they did deserve to get something out of it.
"But it was us who got the result in the end" ENGLAND UNDER 21s...1 HOLLAND UNDER 21s...0 (Agg: 3-2)
ENGLAND: Kirkland 9, Wright 6, Bridge 6, Carrick 7, Terry 8, King 7, Pennant 6, Davis 6, Ameobi 8, Defoe 6, Dunn 7. Subs: Greening (for Pennant, 68) Not Used: Barry, Robinson, Greening, Chadwick, Parker, Prutton, Wilson.
HOLLAND: Ten Rouwelaar, Heitinga, Van Nieuwstadt, Knol, Bosschaart, Van Der Schaaf, Boussaboun, Zonneveld (Denneboom 71), Kuyt, Van Der Vaart, Ax. Subs Not Used: De Vries, Wisgerhof, Mathijsen, Hersi, Mendes Da Silva, De Graaf.
Referee: Vladimir Hrinak (Slovakia)
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article