The Young Lions bounced back from falling a goal behind on the stroke of half time to produce a dazzling 20 minute spell that saw them go on to win and the head coach was delighted to see his men rise to challenge after the break.
“I was a little bit disappointed at half time, just because we got ourselves into a real position of strength midway through the first half,” he told TheFA.com.
Poland 2-3 England
U18 international
Saturday 15 November 2014
Gdynia City Stadium, Gdynia
“We were completely in control of the game, but didn’t score. We hit the bar, had one kicked off the line and we had other nearly-chances too.
“I think it’s really important that when you dominate a period of the game, you have to score. What we have found is, at international level, you make one mistake and you get hurt and punished – that’s exactly what happened and we found ourselves a goal down.
“I challenged them at half time to see if they could put that right and boy did they - and good on them.
“Within a heartbeat we were 3-1 up and I thought at that point it was going to be five or six, but again we let them back into the game and it ended up 3-2 and fun and games for the last few minutes.”
Although he admits he would like to see his side manage the game better when the two nations meet again on Monday, Dewsnip said the football produced by his side in the 20 minutes after the break was exactly the performance the national coaches are trying to engrain into England sides at all levels.
Poland U18s boss Rafat Janas with Dewsnip
“That’s it. The tempo was very, very high but that went alongside some great technique. There was some marvellous passing, great movement and opportunities, and we scored,” he added.
“That’s exactly what we would like to be more often if we could.
“We’ll look for a more mature performance on Monday.
“We have lads who have got first-team experience within the squad, and I think we need to manage the game a little bit more efficiently – which we’ll talk about tomorrow.”
