By Peter Donnelly
April 2 2003

David Platt's England U-21 side drew 1-1 with Turkey U-21's at St. James' Park on Tuesday night. Newcastle midfielder Jermaine Jenas partnered David Prutton in centre midfield but it was the Turks who enjoyed the better game. A crowd of 23,000+ turned up at St. James' Park, with the Gallowgate totally packed along with the west corner. The East Stand was fairly full though the middle section of the Milburn Stand was closed off as the Turkish fans occupied the Sir John Hall corner next to more England fans.

Unfortunately the England youngsters played no-where near as well as they can, with a lot of long balls and a lack of quality passing on display.

Turkey went ahead early on when they found space on the right wing and put in a good cross for the no.10 to ahead of Dawson and co to finish. The striker then proceeded to do a Temuri Ketsbaia when, after taunting the locals, he kicked the advertising boards in a provocitive manner towards the Gallowgate end, which didn't go down too well in the stands and he targeted for booing throughout the game.

Halfway through the second half though and England equalised as Arsenal striker Francis Jeffers levelled Alan Shearer's U-21 goal record when Gareth Barry played him through and Jeffers finished cooly, slotting the ball home.

England came to life for a few minutes after that but most of the match was dominated by Turkey and their goalscorer, no.10, had a good goal disallowed late in the second half for offside.

Our lad JJ (who's second name is pronoucned "Jeenas") did very well in some parts of the match, showing he has an excellent pass and a will to drive foward. He might have scored from a free-kick had it not been for a deflection.

Full Time: 1-1