Spence leads England to win

Jordan Spence captained England to an impressive 3-0 win in their opening European Under-19 Championship qualifier on Wednesday.

Still only 18, Spence has represented his country at U16, U17 and U18 level but is now established at the higher level. England's success in their opening Group 9 match sets them up perfectly for the second game against the mini-tournament hosts Northern Ireland on Friday. The section will conclude with a fixture against Serbia next Monday. The top two in the group will go through to the Elite round stage.

With Spence lining up in central defence, his team-mates did the job up front. Manchester United's Danny Drinkwater opened the scoring on six minutes before Nathan Delfouneso doubled the lead just before half-time. Arsenal midfielder Henri Lansbury made sure of the win with eleven minutes left on the clock in Ballymena.

Speaking to theFA.com, England coach Brian Eastick said: ""We pretty much dominated the game from start to finish and Albania went for damage limitation in the second half by putting everyone behind the ball.