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Win pleases relieved Noble

16 Jun 2009 - 08:16:18

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Mark Noble admitted the performance by Stuart Pearce's England Under-21 side against Finland in their opening European Championship encounter had not been the best.

Despite playing with ten men for much of the match following Michael Mancienne's dismissal, England edged to an unconvincing 2-1 victory thanks to goals by Lee Cattermole and Micah Richards.

West Han United midfielder Noble said of the win in Halmstad: "The conditions made it hard.

"We've been playing on wet pitches for the last two weeks, but today we got here and the pitch was dry and it was really hot. I think it suited them better than us.

"We're delighted to get the win.

"We go back to the hotel now and prepare for Thursday's match against Spain. No matter how we did it, no one will care that we weren't playing Barcelona football. We won the game and that's all that matters."