Stern, resolute and strong – all the hallmarks of a great defensive display which left England U17s Head Coach John Peacock "very pleased".
His Young Lions kicked-off their Algarve Tournament in style on Wednesday, with a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in Lagos.
And after some serious work with his side in training, Peacock was a proud man after seeing his players transfer the lessons learnt on the practice pitch into a match situation.
Peacock told TheFA.com: "We didn’t have many days to prepare them to be honest, so we have had to prepare wisely.
“If you spend a bit of time working on it in training and take it on board, then it will have a positive effect.”
John Peacock England U17s Head Coach
"The focus has been on defending as a team from the front to the back and I thought they transferred that into the game really well. They stopped a talented Dutch team playing the way that they wanted to – which was trying to play through us – and remained focused.
"It is a nice springboard for us to go ahead in the week."
With a pool of players boasting attackers such as Patrick Roberts and the impressive debutant Josh Sims, it would be easy to heap praise on the forwards, but it was the defensive performance that pleased the boss.
"Defending has maybe been a bit of an Achilles' heel for this group so we have spent a bit of time on that," explained Peacock.
"But it showed the players that if you spend a bit of time working on it in training and take it on board, then it will have a positive effect.
"I think if you are going to win anything in your career, you need to have a solid defence and foundation to work from, and we want to continue that through the rest of the week."
Next up for the U17s is another tough test against home nation Portugal on Friday, but despite their winning start, Peacock says the real test of his team is still to come.
He added: "The big focus of this week is to try and see some new players and get some preparation in for the Elite Round qualifiers next month.
"It is irrelevant whether we win this tournament to be honest, the big one is in a few weeks time in Czech Republic, and we want to get to Malta in the summer.
"It’s been one good game, but we have two more to go and we still have plenty of hard work to do."
