'We all want and dream of winning trophies for our country'

Dael Fry believes the experience and attacking force of England Under-19s will prove a key combination as they head in to their European Championship qualification campaign.

The Middlesbrough defender and his Young Lions team-mates flew out to Macedonia on Tuesday after three days of preparation at St. George’s Park.

Aidy Boothroyd’s men will take on the host nation on Thursday before tackling Finland two days later and concluding their first round qualifiers with a match against Italy next Tuesday.

And Fry knows the tough task in store as they look to advance for the elite round of qualification next spring, but believes experience of winning the Euros at U17s level will prove vital.

"It’s going to be very hard. They will probably be very tough to break down and have men behind the ball, but we have to remain patient," he explained to TheFA.com.

"We’ve learned that through experience. It might be a 1-0 win or 4-0 win, but as long as you get the result that is what matters most. We just need to remain confident and patient and believe our football will get us through."

Fry was part of the England side that kicked-off the season with a 3-2 away win in Germany before they secured a battling 1-1 draw in Zagreb against Croatia last month.

"They were two hard places to go, especially Germany, where not many teams come back from there with a win," Fry said.

"We managed to achieve that, [with] ten men too, and then we got a good draw in Croatia, so we were quite happy with that.

"But now it is on to the serious stuff with European qualification at stake. Tournament football at international level is unbelievable and we all want and dream of winning trophies for England.

"We have had a taste of glory last summer when we won the Euros and we are desperate to carry that on this year."

Despite his obvious desire to record as many clean sheets as possible, the big centre-half admits he always has confidence his team-mates can produce the goods at the other end should they concede. 

"We have some real attacking threat in this group, and even if we concede we are always confident our forwards have enough to get us a result," he added.

"It’s great for us defenders, we know that if we do our job and keep the ball out of the net then the attackers we have can get us a result."

Working with an experienced coach such as Boothroyd is something that Fry is enjoying too. 

The 18-year-old added: "We really got to know him well and we learned a lot. I think he is a great coach and we really got a good understanding of his philosophy and what he wants us to do.

"I think that bodes well for us going into the rest of the year."