England kids shine at Carrow Road

Well done Norwich!
That was the verdict tonight after the England Under-21 international against Romania in which Stuart Pearce’s side gained a 2-1 semi-final first leg win to qualify for next year’s European Championships.
I’ll be honest and say I’m not the biggest England fan there is, especially the bunch of talentless monkeys that recorded such an epic fail in South Africa a few months ago.
I’ve only ever seen two full England internationals and this did have the feeling of one. By that I mean there were loads of kids around and loads of Londoners.
It definitely didn’t feel like a Norwich game – not only was there hardly a City shirt on view, but the crowd didn’t get behind the home side in the same way they do The Canaries. What noise there was came from air horns carried by the type of children that should have probably been in bed.
Two kids near me aged about eight took great pride in blasting a horn in my ear for most of the game to which their pre-pubescent cohorts answered ‘England.’
Give me grown up swearing any day.
As for the game itself, it was excellent to have a look at Jack Wilshire. The Arsenal wunderkind is in both the Under-21 squad and the full squad for next Tuesday’s clash with Montenegro.
Wilshire and Sunderland’s Jordan Henderson ran the midfield with Danny Rose and Tom Cleverley on the flanks, Fabrice Muamba playing a holding role in front of the back four and Danny Welbeck up front on his own.
At the back, Blackburn’s Phil Jones partnered Chris Smalling with Ryan Bertrand and Michael Mancienne the full backs and Frankie Fielding in goal.
Not much happened in the first half, Romania hit the post and should have taken the lead a minute before the break.
The second half was a different story and England relied on corners to get the job done. A Cleverley corner early in the second half was cleared only as far as Henderson who volleyed a superb opener.
That goal changed the game remarkably from the cat and mouse scrappy first half to an open second half.
England could have gone 2-0 up minutes later, but when Romania pulled a goal back, Stuart Pearce became more visible on the touchlines.
Rose impressed down the left, but England needed something extra – that came in the form of Aston Villa’s Marc Albrighton.
Albrighton changed the game remarkably down the right with his pace, but the key was his corner with 20 minutes to go that was bundled home by Smalling.
Of all the England players, Smalling, Cleverly and the sub Albrighton impressed. Wilshire is obviously a massive talent despite his diminutive size. I just hope he plays at Carrow Road again one day.