Pearce: We've put pride back into England
Stuart Pearce insists his England Under-21 side have put the pride back into wearing the Three Lions jersey. Pearce, who won 78 England caps as a player, saw David Bentley and Gabriel Agbonlahor pull out of his squad for the European Under-21 Championship finals last summer.
Blackburn midfielder Bentley wanted to save himself for this season, while Agbonlahor was uncontactable after going on holiday.
But after Tuesday's impressive 1-1 draw in Portugal, which left England hot favourites to top their qualifying group and reach a play-off for the Euro 2009 Finals in Sweden, Pearce revealed he had to turn away unfit players who were desperate to represent their country.
Agbonlahor was one of those, the Villa man only ruled out of the Portugal tie at the last minute with a knee injury although his replacement, Adam Johnson, scored the equaliser against the Portuguese.
And Pearce, who saw 14 players pull out through injury in the last fortnight, praised the attitude of Agbonlahor and his team-mates.
"Sometimes it's easy to look at the 11 on the pitch but then I see the back-up, see the likes of Gabby, who's desperate to be here," said Pearce.
"It'd be very easy for Gabby to say, 'I'll go back to my club' but he wants to be a part of this set-up, and the more players who want to be part of this set-up, the better it is for me as a their manager.
"We've had players from all parts of the country turning up and we've had to put them in a taxi and say 'you're a mile away from playing'. With that attitude we have a chance."
And Pearce's goalkeeper, Manchester City starlet Joe Hart, echoed his manager's sentiments, calling his team-mates heroes as they made light of the trying circumstances they found themselves in.
"They were dropping off like flies but at the same time people have come out here and played like heroes," he said.
"You've got people like (Leicester full-back) Joe Mattock , at 17, come in, didn't have a clue who anyone was, didn't know anyone and was different class. We've all dug in and got the result."
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