Wickham Delighted to Find Scoring Touch Ahead of Final
Saturday, 29th May 2010 09:06

Striker Connor Wickham says he was desperate to score in Thursday’s European U17 Championships semi-final against France having failed to net in the group matches. The frontman is looking to add to those two goals when England face Spain in the final in Liechtenstein on Sunday (Eurosport2 UK, 4.45pm).

Wickham said: “It’s an amazing feeling. The team played well and hopefully we can take that into the final and go all the way. Hopefully we can win it now.

“I played in two [group] games and I hadn’t scored so I was desperate to score [against France]. I got the two goals and my confidence is high now going into the final.”

The Hereford-born youngster says that continuity has been a major factor in England’s success: “We’ve got a solid back four and we’ve got a good goalkeeper as well. We defended really well and managed to see the [France] game out.

“We’ve got a good team. We’ve got the same team that we’ve had all the way through [qualifying] and all the boys know each other and we’ve all got a good relationship. We’ve done well, so hopefully we can go into the final and do what we do.”

Wickham believes he has progressed significantly during the last year in which he has become a regular in the first team and signed a two-year professional contract: “I’ve physically developed and I’ve developed mentally as a player as well.

“I’ve experienced what it’s like to play in the Championship and hopefully I can help the boys. [The last year has been] a bit surreal, but you’ve just got to take it in your stride and not get carried away.”

If Wickham, who has scored seven goals in 11 games at U17 level, helps his side to victory on Sunday it will be England's first European trophy since the 1993 U18 triumph when the likes of Robbie Fowler, Gary Neville and Sol Campbell carried off England's only UEFA honour so far.

Ahead of the final, UEFA has a feature on Wickham on its website.

Photo: Action Images

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DrJeckyll added 13:22 - May 29 Good to see Roy's management of Connor publicly commended by the England set up
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Mungo added 16:04 - May 29

Well done Connor! Another performance like that and you and your team mates will likely be winning your first big trophy! A grand achievement and now to put the icing on the cake!

Credit to RK for his handling of CW. In fairness, he has done a decent job bringing him through however, in contrast, his handling of other areas needs to be much better next year. Lets hope for a much improved season all round!

By the way Connor, if you want to mention to some of the other promising England U19s that ITFC is a really good club where they would like to play and develop as footballers, please do!

jas0999 added 16:20 - May 29 As I said the other day - Roy Keane has to take a vast amount of credit for his management of Conner. Well done to all concerned.
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stinkiusminkius added 17:03 - May 29

Jas0999 - I admire the way that you take any of those rare occasions where
keanes management has actually not been negative and spin it as some act of genius. Yes, I concur that he has done a "good" job with Connor but let's not go overboard. It's not as though he discovered
him and arguably magilton would have continued his development in the same way. Plus, if priskin had not turned out to be a waste of money, then chances are that Connor wouldn't have been used half as much.
So, yes, keane has done well, but it's only a small positive in a season full of negatives.

tom_the_blue added 17:43 - May 29 Very well done Connor, and well done Keano for the great job you've done on him, as the Under-17's manager said and those who seem to hate you can't deny.
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