London - Arabstoday
Liverpool midfielder and West Brom defender pleased with the start made to their European Under-21 Championship qualifying campaign, where they sit top of Group Eight.England’s Jordan Henderson and Craig Dawson believe the squad fully deserved to pick up three points against Norway to take a commanding position in their European Under-21 Championship qualifying table.The West Brom defender got England on their way with a towering header, while Henderson put Stuart Pearce\'s charges two ahead inside ten minutes with a simple side-footed finish.Valon Berisha pulled one back for the hosts but England now sit top of Group Eight with a three-point advantage.Henderson told the FA.com: “We defended well at times and we scored some good goals, so overall we are pleased with the three points.\"Chambo [Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain] did a bit of good work on the right, and put a good ball in, Ross hit it towards and goal and I just managed to get in there. \"I think the overall performance was good by the lads and we showed what we were about defensively. \"They [Norway] are a very good side. We knew that as we had done a lot of work on them and we knew what they were about. They showed again how good they were tonight. \"I think we deserved to win, because of the way we defended and went about the game, and the character we showed.We still have a lot of games to go, so we just have to keep focused and make sure we get the right results in those games.\"Dawson backed up the Liverpool midfielder\'s remarks and was buoyed by the start England had made to qualifying.“Everybody had to dig in and we got the result we wanted in the end,\" he said.\"It\'s been a great start to the campaign and we have just got to keep on going and keep pushing forward.\"After scoring England\'s opener, Dawson suffered a head injury which required stitches and ten minutes of treatment but Pearce praised the 21-year-old\'s determination to continue.I never cut my head open, don\'t worry about that, I always made sure I had my elbows up in the air and protecting my face,” Pearce told theFA.com.“That\'s why I\'m still very, very pretty. He\'s got great courage, he\'s a man, is Dawson. The rest of the boys love him to bits.\" The West Brom defender added: “My head\'s a bit sore, but the result was worth it.\"I had seven stitches. I went up for the header and I think I caught his boot on the way down, and it split quite easy. It\'s my first war wound for England. It was bleeding quite heavily. \"I was always going to come back on, definitely. The Doc just wanted to stitch it up and get me back on the field.\"