Taylor's England keep the faith

England coach Peter Taylor said England kept on believing after a late goal gave his team a 3-2 victory in Switzerland and a place in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-offs for the second year running.

Milner winner
Having been held 2-2 at home by Moldova last month, England needed to win in Lucerne to pip the Swiss to top spot in Group 8. The visitors raced into an early two-goal lead through Theo Walcott and David Nugent, but were pegged back and looked set to miss out on Friday's draw until substitute James Milner struck with two minutes remaining.

'Outstanding'
"It was an outstanding performance," said Taylor. "There were lots of things that went wrong but we kept at it and we carried on believing we could score. We're really pleased to get through. When we played Moldova last month it was a hard game for us as a lot of our players weren't match fit, they were just finishing off their pre-season. To have to come to Switzerland and win was a hard task but we've done it."

Going one better
Match-winner Milner is looking to the play-offs in early October to banish the pain of a narrow defeat by France at the same stage last term, as England target next summer's finals in the Netherlands. "This result was important as we missed out at the final hurdle last time, which was obviously disappointing," the winger said. "The majority of the boys who played against France are still here so the disappointment is still fresh and we want to go one step better."