England young lions held by Romania
Derbyshire picked up his form of the summer with another goal
Tuesday, 21, Aug 2007 10:30
England Under-21s carved out a keenly-contested 1-1 draw against their Romanian counterparts as they prepare for their European Championship qualification campaign.
The visitors almost punctured the buoyant atmosphere at Bristol City's Ashton Gate home as Eric Bicfalvi's ambitious effort forced goalkeeper Joe Hart into an urgent backpedaling tip over the top.
But Matt Derbyshire continued his impressive start to the season and settled Stuart Pearce's side's nerves with a routine finish on eight minutes.
Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor sent a cross fizzing across the face of the visitors' goal and the in-form Blackburn striker calmly directed the ball into the net for the opener.
England appeared to have the measure of their opponents for most of the opening exchanges, but a careless handball from Nedum Onuoha allowed Romania to level on 24 minutes.
A rasping free-kick from Bogdan Stancu rattled the crossbar, but found its way over the line via a rebound off the sprawling body of the unfortunate Hart.
England continued to have the best chances and raised the tempo in the second half with Mark Noble sending a free-kick narrowly wide and Derbyshire mis-timing a close-range header.
Romania fell a man down when Cristian Scutaru picked up a second booking, but even with a numerical advantage England could not fashion a breakthrough.