Nathan Delfouneso and Nathan Baker both played 90 minutes for England in a disappointing European Under-19 Championship loss to Holland in France tonight and now face the ominous prospect of needing a result against a very impressive French side to progress.

FC Twente’s Steven Berghuis scored the only goal of the game for the Dutch in the 6th minute with a strong header from some distance to cap a fine cross. They were clearly the stronger side and enjoyed much of the play during the first half, leaving England looking short of ideas and limited chances in front of goal.

Delfouneso did manage to side foot a loose ball in the box on target, only to see it cleared with some ease by Bruno Martins, and also scored what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate goal in the second half which was mysteriously disallowed, but was otherwise fairly quiet today.

Controversy

My feeling is that the goal was disallowed as a result of the referee being influenced in some way by a Dutch player apparently injured at the other end of the pitch, amidst calls to have the game stopped. England had played on, as they were quite within their rights to do, and there may be some controversy surrounding the decision in the post-match interviews.

Nathan Baker played at left back and he certainly appears to be a better centre half, although he certainly wasn’t bad at full back. It’s fair to say that Stephen Warnock will not be looking nervously over his shoulder though.

After France’s disappointment in South Africa, they can at least be a bit more optimistic about their future after their young side added a 5-0 destruction of Austria to the comprehensive 4-1 victory over Holland they opened with. England’s hopes of a place in the semi-finals must now be slim.

Group B is currently topped by Spain with six points, followed by Portugal with three, ahead of Croatia and Italy with a point a piece. Spain will play Italy and Portugal will take on Croatia in the final group games.

Ireland

Meanwhile, the Aston Villa first team – including Gabby I believe – jetted out to Dublin tonight ahead of Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Bohemians.

Bohemians were unceremoniously dumped out of the Champions League last night, losing the return leg of their 2nd round qualifying tie against Welsh side The New Saints 4-0, despite carrying in a 1-0 lead from the home leg last week.

It’s a shame as TNS will now go on to face Anderlecht in the 3rd round, the winner going into the Champions League play-off round, the loser drops into the Europa League play-off round where they become a potential opponent for Villa as we attempt to qualify for the group stage. It could, therefore, have been a potential scouting trip, but the Welsh champions apparently didn’t read the script.

After the Irish trip, the boys head back to the Midlands briefly to play Walsall before heading out to Portugal for the Guadiana Cup games against Feyenoord and Benfica.