Pearce delighted with England performance
England Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce has spoken of his pride in his players after the Republic of Ireland were comfortably beaten 3-0 in Cork in their European Under-21 Championship qualifier. Goals from Mark Noble (2) and James Milner put the tie beyond the hosts within 25 minutes, and Pearce was delighted with his side's performance.
"I'm immensely proud of them, to come here and get that result against a good side was tremendous," said Pearce.
"Right across the board I was delighted and hopefully we can now send these players back to their clubs feeling 10 feet tall.
"We can't be doing any better than we are at the moment but we all have our feet on the ground - or at least I do anyway!"
Pearce has also backed a number of his squad to make the step up to Steve McClaren's full England squad.
"A lot of players are doing themselves no harm at all," explained Pearce. "From number one through to 14 they all did a fantastic job and I will tell Steve that. I back all my players for the senior squad."
Pearce has also claimed that his side could have kick-started a great week for English sport, with the senior side able to seal qualification for Euro 2008 if they beat Russia in Moscow on Wednesday before England take on South Africa in the Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday.
"This could be a big week for patriots," joked Pearce. "We've started the week off well and we've got our result.
"Now we have our fingers crossed for the seniors and then it's all eyes on the rugby, and we're all behind our boys over there."
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