Luke Berry Fires Debut Goal In England C Victory

Photo courtesy of Pinnacle/The FA

Jordan Under-23 0     England C 1 (Berry 32)

England C (4-4-2): Coughlin (Lloyd-Weston 73); MacDonald, Holland (Turley 64), Franks, Demetriou; Marsh-Brown (Pearson 59), Berry, Payne (Gallagher 55), Frear; Gray (Fitchett 46), Norwood.

LUKE BERRY grabbed a debut goal to give England C the perfect finish to their International Challenge Trophy preparations.

Cambridge United’s midfielder rose high to head the winner in the first-half against Jordan Under-23s.

The next time England C meet up will be for their ICT Group opener against Slovakia in May. And although they will play a friendly against Hungary in the days before the game, this was the last chance for manager Paul Fairclough to run the rule over his players.

Within 60 seconds Jordan had their first sight of goal. A cutting pass played Laith Albashtawi in behind England’s defence, but the Jordan wide man fired into the side netting.

Albashtawi was proving to be a useful outlet in the opening exchanges and he called England’s Andy Coughlin into action with a low shot soon after.

Coughlin had to be alert again when Belal Ali Hussein Qwaider got a shot away. The Wrexham keeper getting down low at his near post.

Slowly England C played their way into the game. Barnet winger Keanu Marsh-Brown went on some trademark mazy dribbles before James Norwood shot wide and Andre Gray’s fierce drive was beaten away.

England were rewarded just after the half-hour mark through Berry. Salisbury’s Elliott Frear sent in a gorgeous delivery from the left and the Cambridge playmaker nodded in.

Other than substitute Dan Fitchett’s header, the second half saw little in the way of clear chances until the 64th minute.

It fell to Jordan and Albashtawi but, again after getting into a good position, the Jordanian fired off target.

Norwood had a header poorly ruled out for offside as England kept their discipline and shape to see out the game.

For full reaction from the game, pick up Sunday’s NLP