I don’t want to go into it too much but this is my second trip away and personally I have loved working with him and I would love to see him stay. Paul Collingwood could replace Ian Bell but not Jones.Not for the first time the battles of the new ball will be crucial England have been winning most of them Marcus Trescothick has been superb The opener led the counterattack in Birmingham. The Scotland Under-21 defender Steven Watt has dedicated Tuesday night’s victory over their Norwegian counterparts to his under-fire coach, Rainer Bonhof. Wales had scored twice in the first half through the lively David Cotterill and impressive Vaughan, and were leading at the break despite a Pawel Brozek strike.Poland stepped up the pace after the interval and Brozek equalised before Karol Gregorek’s late winner.

In that second period Poland turned on the rough stuff: sly pushes, diving and a couple of blatant pieces of intimidation which riled Flynn’s young charges, and in particular Beevers, who was booked for dissent.Flynn said: “If they are going to play at this level, there were things going on out on the pitch they will have to get used to. They are a very young side and they did allow themselves to get frustrated and distracted.”. An under-17 qualifying group will be staged in north Wales later this month against Estonia, Switzerland and Kazakhstan, while in October the under-19s travel to France to play their qualifiers against the hosts, San Marino and Austria. They also play an under-19 warm-up friendly in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.None of this preparation will have much point if by the time next season starts, there is no under-21 tournament to contest – or one which is financial prohibitive.Flynn’s side were given a lesson in the darker arts of top-level football on Tuesday night when they lost 3-2 to Poland despite leading twice.

Losing the opportunity to match themselves against the likes of England, Austria and Poland would have a damaging effect.Toshack has already promoted David Vaughan, Craig Davies, Lewis Price, Richard Duffy and James Collins to his senior squad, and is expected to do likewise with Peter Gilbert, Lewin Nyatanga, Joe Ledley and Ramon Calliste.The Wales Under-21 manager, Brian Flynn, has devoted all his energies of late to bringing the under-17s, under-19s and under-21s together almost as a club unit with the prospect of rapid progress to the senior team for some candidates.His team have just two more qualifiers left against Germany and Azerbaijan next month before an under-20 game in Cyprus in November.By that time the captain Lee Beevers, Lee Wogan, Gilbert, Andrew Crofts, Arron Davies, Mark Jones, Anthony Pulis and Vaughan will all be too old for competitive under-21 football.That means Flynn will soon be concentrating on under-17 and under-19 European qualifiers to try to find the next batch of young players. Under-21 matches currently run parallel with European championship and World Cup qualifiers, and national associations are able to cut down on expense and administration by sending both teams to the same destination.
However, at the beginning of the 2006-07 season, a new one-year tournament will be staged by Uefa, which Wales may have to pre-qualify for. It will mean doubling expenses because under-21 teams will not be able to travel with the seniors.A Football Association of Wales spokesman, Ceri Stennett, said: “If we don’t get through the pre-qualifying stage there will be no meaningful matches to play for a whole year and we will be restricted to friendlies.”Countries such as Northern Ireland do not even compete in top-level under-21 football because of costs and, while Wales do not wish emulate them, the new format would affect the smaller footballing nations.However, they need high-quality opposition to be able to supply John Toshack’s senior squad with promising youngsters – the cornerstone of the manager’s five-year plan for an overall improvement in Welsh football. Wales’ involvement in future under-21 football could be handicapped by a decision by the governing body of European football, Uefa, to make the next tournament a stand-alone event. “It was actually the first time I saw him play live and he is such a strong presence,” Taylor said “I am sure he will be a great defender.”. They are a strong side and very well organised but we are very confident ahead of the next games.”The West Ham United player said it was not the right time to pick favourites for the final round next summer “That is too early to say now,” he said “Anyone who qualifies has the right to be there.

Our main objective is to win the play-offs [in November] and get there.”England proved their versatility by successfully switching from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1, with Cole deployed as the lone striker “We are taking the positives out of it,” said Reo-Coker “We changed our system and it worked well for us. It shows we are able to change our systems and still play well as a team. We had a lot of passing and ball movement.”The Germany manager, Dieter Eilts, admitted the two teams were “on almost the same level” after their second draw during the qualifying campaign. “We’ve had two very interesting matches against England,” he said.

“Both teams played very well tonight and it was a pretty offensive clash. We did a good job in defence had it not been for the let-down on their goal.”Taylor was impressed with the performance from Chelsea defender Robert Huth, who battled it out with team-mate Cole. “We have been unbeaten in our qualifying campaign and we should always have that positive vibe around the place. It would be nice to win the group because we would then get the [play-offs'] second leg at home in November, which we want to win.”Peter Whittingham, who set up the equaliser with a pin-point corner from the left, said it was too early to speculate about winning the group.”Our main focus was on qualifying,” he said.