Pearce proud as England sail on

Coach Stuart Pearce feels England did "enough to take us into the play-offs" after his side beat the Republic of Ireland 3-0 in Southampton to move nine points clear at the top of Group 3.

'Cutting edge'
A Stephen O'Halloran own goal and strikes from James Milner and Theo Walcott helped England to take a commanding lead over second-placed Portugal, who have two games in hand, with three games to go in the section. The ten group winners and four best runners-up will compete in play-offs for a place in the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Sweden and Pearce, who recently joined Fabio Capello's senior England coaching staff, said: "I think this win will be enough to take us into the play-offs; we feel this will get us there. I'm delighted with my team. It took us a while to break them down but we learned how to be patient. We never looked liked conceding and had a good cutting edge going forward."