Peacock's pleasure at success

John Peacock has now led England to the UEFA European Under-17 Championship four times in five years - but their qualification for this May’s finals in Belgium was a close-run thing.

Last-gasp winner
To win Elite round Group 3 in Sarajevo they needed a last-day victory against Serbia, who they trailed on goal difference at kick-off. Vujadin Savić put through an own goal early in the second half to give England the lead but Goran Smiljanić swiftly equalised. However, with barely a minute left on the clock, Daniel Welbeck headed in for England and Peacock's team were in next Wednesday’s draw in Brussels.

'Extremely pleased'
"The players are all delighted," Peacock said. "There were so many emotions when the goal went in. We had to try and keep calm and defend well. But credit to the players. They kept their focus as they have all week. To win all three games, away from home - we have to be extremely pleased."

'Deserved'
Peacock's side began the group well with a 5-0 win against hosts Bosnia-Herzegovina, but lost first place the next day when they were overtaken on goal difference by Serbia despite a 1-0 defeat of Azerbaijan - a game in which England lost a player to injury and had another sent off in the first five minutes. Their coach is in no doubt that their finals berth is justified. "We fully deserved it," he said. "The Serbs were very gracious in defeat, but it would have been a complete injustice had we not qualified. We were the best footballing side in the group. We won all three games, scoring eight and conceding just one. We did make it hard for ourselves at times though."

World Cup goal
In his previous final tournaments, Peacock’s side reached the semi-finals in 2003 and 2004, before a group-stage exit the next season. However, in 2003 and 2005 they were just pipped to the FIFA U-17 World Cup later in those years, but for this year's competition in Korea Republic, the number of entrants has been expanded from 16 to 24, with the UEFA finals now carrying an increased number of qualifying places from the previous three. "The top five teams will go through to the world championships in Korea," said Peacock. "That has to be our objective. We have a decent set of players, but I don't want to look too far ahead until the draw is made."