Bradley Fewster may have stolen the headlines after his hat-trick for England Under-18s in the 4-0 win over Belgium on Tuesday – but head coach Neil Dewsnip reserved special praise for left-back Ben Chilwell.
The Leicester City 17-year-old shone on debut for the Young Lions at any level, crossing for goals from Fewster and Dean Rittenberg and keeping a gifted Belgium attack at bay.
England Under-18s 4-0 Belgium
International match
Tuesday February 18
St. George's Park
Dewsnip said: “He was terrific in all ways. It was his debut and that is his first taste of international football.
“He's a Leicester City boy and I know there they are extremely proud of him. And he's been an absolute delight.
“He said he was intimidated by the experience but you would never have known that. I thought he played exceedingly well.”
Dewsnip was also impressed by the maturity shown by Fewster, the Middlesbrough striker, who netted three goals and worked tirelessly as the central striker in England’s 4-3-3 formation.
“It is very difficult in the way that we play just to have one centre forward when you are learning that role,” said Dewsnip, who joined The FA six months ago after 17 years working at Everton’s academy.
Bradley Fewster bagged a hat-trick against Belgium
“Physically and mentally it is very demanding, so to actually do the work off the ball that we are asking him to do, plus get the goals is almost a thankless task.
“The fact that he has managed to get three of them is absolutely outstanding.
Two of Fewster’s goals came from penalties, both times with Tottenham winger Nathan Oduwa being fouled in the area.
“The threat of big Nathan Oduwa on the left-hand side created both penalties - he's a real weapon,” said Dewsnip, who was grateful to Southend stopper Ted Smith for a fine early save.
“It was crucial. It was still 0-0 and it could have been very different. First half they were quite dangerous.
Neil Dewsnip has presided over successive 4-0 victories
“The centre-forward and the two wide players were a threat and they could have scored a couple but fortunately our goalkeeper made a couple of good saves.
“Then we got them. It was almost like Russian roulette - our front three against their front three and thankfully for us ours won the day.
He added: “But to be fair to our boys the way that we've dominated the second half - I think we would have found our way through.”
“We thought that we could get down the sides when we watched the DVD footage before the game and that's how it turned out, so well done to the coaching staff and well done to the players.”
The victory at St. George’s Park was Dewsnip’s second since taking over as Under-18s head coach - the first being a 4-0 win over Hungary – and the former schoolteacher said he is eager to see the age-group take on greater prominence in the international calendar.
“The Under-18 programme had slipped away for whatever reason, so we have resurrected that the boys this year will play around about six-eight games and build on that, so that there is no gap between 17s and 19s,” he said.
“We need great co-operation from the teams, which we are getting and we need some time.
“We are all joined up so as a staff we meet every week and Gareth Southgate leads us and we talk about all the pathway, from Under-16 to Under-21, and above all we want to get our better players into Roy's team.”
