Video: Extended highlights of England U21s 5-0 win over Iceland including Gardner’s goals

You may well have already seen this, but on the off chance you’ve been off the grid, as I have, in the last 24 hours or so, here’s the extended highlights of England’s 5-0 win over Iceland in the 2013 European U21 Championships qualifier in Colchester.

Nathan Delfouneso was in the starting eleven, but left the pitch with the game barely 10 minutes old after pulling up chasing a ball into the box. It didn’t look like anything major so hopefully

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Video: Interview with Gary Gardner away with England U21s

Gary Gardner, Nathan Delfouneso and Nathan Baker were called up for England ahead of two Under-21 European Champions qualifiers; Iceland in Colchester on Thursday and away to Belgium next Monday.

Here’s a two minute interview on the training ground with Gardner, pausing just briefly to allow Delfouneso to take a penalty in the background. Eventually.

[Email subscribers can find the video here]

Looking forward (to Everton), not back in anger (at England)

Another international break has come and gone, time to focus on the bread and butter stuff. If you watched England labour to three points against Wales at Wembley this week, as a Villa fan, the line-up may have looked a lot like the image below. It probably stung quite a bit for most of us.

This is a relatively rare experience for us, but it’s been coming and it’s easy to lose sight of an important fact amongst the bitterness. In

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Aston Villa 2 Hereford 0: Lichaj and Delfouneso with late goals

Just over 21,000 saw Villa earn their place in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup the hard way thanks to a late goal each from Eric Lichaj (80′) and Nathan Delfouneso (88′) from the bench.

It’s a game I’ve yet to see anything from first hand, but it sounds like we dominated the game pretty much in the manner you’d expect over a struggling League Two side, but were frustrated by some fine goalkeeping from 20 year old loanee, David

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Albrighton, Delfouneso, Walker (Twice), Young, Downing and Bent all picked for England

Fabio Capello has named a 26-man squad to take on Switzerland in the next Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley on June 4th and Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Darren Bent are all included. As is Kyle Walker, although he’s no longer technically a Villan, he more than deserves a mention here.

In fact, Walker’s also included in Stuart Pearce’s confirmed 23-man squad for the European Under-21 Championships in Denmark next month along with Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso, who definitely are

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Video: Ashley Young interview with FATV, plus Kyle Walker’s screamer

Ashley Young talking to FATV ahead of England’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales on Saturday.

YouTube Video

James Collins gets a mention in the video, he was in the frame to captain the Welsh side on Saturday, but contrary to silly rumours circulating earlier this week, he’s only playing after passing a fitness test and was not fit for last Saturday’s game against Wolves.

Screamer

You’ve probably already seen Kyle Walker’s “screamer” in a small pitch training game with the Under-21s I Tweeted yesterday.

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First they’re reserves, then they’re valuable assets. Ever feel like you can’t win?

You won’t need me to tell you, you’ll no doubt recognise this team right away, but if not, it’s the starting eleven from the FA Cup 5th round at Eastlands that caused so much anger:

Brad Friedel

Chris Herd
Richard Dunne
Ciaran Clark
Fabian Delph

Michael Bradley
Stiliyan Petrov

Barry Bannan

Nathan Delfouneso
Gabby Agbonlahor

Emile Heskey

Look at it again. They’ve been called “kids”, “reserves”, “B-Team” and much more. Aside from Chris Herd – who had been named in 12 of the 35 match squads before that game by the way

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Ashley Young and Darren Bent get the goals for England plus other international news

Ashley Young and Darren Bent scored both goals for England in a 2-1 victory over Denmark in Copenhagen tonight. It capped a pretty decent performance from England despite conceding an early Daniel Agger goal.

It was Ash’s first goal for England, winning his 12th cap, and Bent’s 2nd goal in what was amazingly only his 8th appearance for the national side. I think they’ll be in Capello’s plans again next time.

Bent played the full 90 minutes and might have scored more,

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Aston Villa 3 Blackpool 2 – James Collins late winner provides a vital three points

It might not have quite been the Thrilla at the Villa I expected during the opening 45 minutes, but it sparked into life during a great 2nd half with no shortage of drama,  James Collins heading in a last minute, emphatic winner when it looked like three points had once again been thrown away with minutes to go against a Blackpool that featured 10 changes.

In truth, there could have been considerably more goals if Marlon Harewood had finished several 1st

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