Aidy Boothroyd: U20s have to learn from Canada draw

Aidy Boothroyd was in no mood to gloss over England U20s’ shortcomings in Wednesday night’s 2-2 draw with Canada – but admitted that his side might be better for the experience.

The Young Lions twice took the lead at Bournemouth’s Goldsands Stadium, but were pegged back each time, and the Canucks’ stoppage-time equaliser was a hammer blow.

He said: "Going 2-1 up with a minute to go should be game over. We should have got the job done.

"The mistakes we made that led to their goals were individual errors. We just have to deal with it and get on with it."

Canada were no mean opponents, possessing pace on the flanks, but Boothroyd felt a draw was always going to be a below-par result.

"We expected to beat Canada but we didn’t underestimate them. We knew they were a counter-attacking team and that if we didn’t take them seriously we would get punished," he said.

Baily Cargill impressed on debut

"We have to give them credit for the way they disrupted things by slowing the game down with a few injuries.

"That is terrific match management. We didn’t manage the match well enough when we went ahead so that is maybe something we can learn off them.”

England were not helped by injuries, losing substitute goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith, and then defenders Shay Facey and Lloyd Jones in the first half, and may have to make changes to the squad ahead of Monday’s meeting with Portugal in Coimbra.

But Bournemouth debutant Baily Cargill impressed Boothroyd, and looked to have secured the win for England with a towering header five minutes from full time.

"The local boy scoring a goal, well that was almost the storybook ending," said Boothroyd.

"We were really impressed with him. He’s the sort of player we like – a centre-half who can use the ball.

"He was very comfortable but brave enough to go and defend and do what’s required on the other side of the game.

"[Manchester United midfielder] Josh Harrop was excellent too. I was really pleased with him."

England U20s remain unbeaten this season, having already defeated Germany, Holland and Romania.

They return to St. George’s Park on Thursday afternoon before travelling to Portugal on Saturday ahead of Monday’s match – so Boothroyd is eager to make his training time with the players count.

"We have a lot of things we have to get right in a short space of time and so many things to get across," he explained.

"For us the priority is to make sure that we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The performance is the most important thing and if you get the performance right then the results will follow."