Young impressed by Pearce

Thursday 1st March 2012 9:08

Young: Scores for England against Holland

Ashley Young applauded the impact Stuart Pearce made in what could be his first of several games in charge of England.

Caretaker manager Pearce watched Holland snatch a 3-2 victory at the death in Wednesday night's friendly at Wembley after Manchester United winger Young netted a stoppage-time equaliser.
Pearce could yet remain in charge for the European Championships if the Football Association do not appoint a permanent successor to Fabio Capello until after the summer.
And Young believes the 49-year-old did his bid to lead England in Poland and Ukraine no harm at all this week.
"The last few days have been good," Young said.
"Everybody's got bonded and got on with the job.
"We don't know who's going to be the manager but Stuart Pearce was manager for this game and I think he did well."
Pearce picked a side last night containing a blend of youth and experience, with the intention of boosting England's Euro 2012 hopes.
Young, 26, said: "We're building towards the summer - that's what we're looking forward to.
"Some of the new boys that come into the squad who haven't got so many caps are looking to cement their place and they're going to get their opportunity to do that."
Young's United team-mates, Danny Welbeck, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling were among them, the former making his full debut and the latter starting at centre-back for the first time.
Welbeck worked tirelessly in the lone striker role and Young said: "He's been brilliant for Man United throughout the season and he was brilliant again.
"He obviously would've wanted to get on the scoresheet but he ran non-stop and worked hard for us."
Smalling went further still, putting his body on the line to try to keep out Holland's second goal only to suffer a sickening clash of heads with Klaas Jan Huntelaar.
The defender was carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital with a gashed head.
Young said: "Obviously it's not too nice to see him go off in the way that he did.
"Hopefully, he's going to be all right."
Smalling was replaced by Jones, who slotted in at right-back and laid on Young's goal.
"It was a great throughball from him," the latter said.
"We've seen already this season what he can do and he produced it again."
Young, who netted for the fourth time in his last five internationals, added: "I was delighted to get my goal and delighted with my performance.
"It'd been even better if we'd got a draw.
"The team spirit we showed to get back in the game was vitally important.
"It's a sucker blow when you concede right at the death."

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