Connor Wickham picked up his second England U19 cap this afternoon in a 4-0 victory over Cyprus in the second game of their European Championships qualifying mini-group in Belgium. Academy duo Josh Carson and Caolan Lavery were in the Northern Ireland side which lost 2-1 to Germany.

Wickham, who started and netted on his debut in Friday’s 6-1 win against Albania, came on as a 76th minute sub but failed to get on the scoresheet this time around with Arsenal’s Benik Afobe grabbing a hat-trick and Liverpool’s Jonjo Shelvey also on the scoresheet.

England, who have already qualified for the elite qualifying stage, complete their group fixtures with a game against Belgium on Wednesday.

Midfielder Carson and striker Lavery were in a Northern Irish U19 side which was desperately unlucky not to claim a point from their game against hosts Germany in their qualifying mini-group, the Germans scoring the winner three minutes into injury time. Town defender Rory McKeown was again an unused sub.

Northern Ireland, who drew 0-0 with Switzerland in their opening fixture, face Andorra in their final match on Wednesday.

The Northern Irish youngsters can still qualify for the next phase if they beat Andorra, Switzerland lose to Germany in their last game and if they have a better goal difference than the Swiss.

Photo: Action Images

MaySixth added 17:24 - Oct 10 Hopefully Wickham will come through unscathed on Wednesday with more goals under his belt ready for Coventry.
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Back_The_Boss added 17:44 - Oct 10 I thought that he would have come on earlier than that.
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Acen added 19:08 - Oct 10 Niceley....
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Blue041273 added 20:05 - Oct 10 We need to remember that Connor is still just 17. Still just a junior in the under 19s. There are a lot of good English players ahead of him in that age group. He still has 2 years at that level although if he continues to progress as he has over the last 12 months he will almost certainly be in the under 21s before then. The problem is that Rooney excepted (and maybe Theo Walcott; Adam Johnson maybe) in recent years very few of the England under 17s/under 19s have really cracked the big time. I remember when we all thought Darren Bent was a cert for England honours; 7 caps in 6 years & 1 goal wasn't what we were expecting. So perhaps instead of talking £10 million transfers we should let Connor establish himself in the Ipswich Team - He's not a regular yet by any means. If he continues to do well the England honours will follow and interest from the Premiership will increase. I sense he is being looked after by his agent or maybe his parents and is not looking to move just yet so I feel that any transfer talk is baseless but for us the double edged sword is that the better he does for us the less likely it is that we will see him in an Ipswich shirt in the prime of his career.

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meekreech added 21:58 - Oct 10 Blue041273 Darren Bent is a player who has had the misfortune to be playing for out of fashion teams with lancashire biased managers so has not had the recognition he deserved ! It still matters ( in some minds ) which team players appear in to give them international caps whether they are the best or not ! The experience Connor is gaining will help in his development and his future with ITFC . Let him progress at his pace and not put too much pressure on him too soon or we could find a blow out happening . He will do well if he is not rushed and will become a very good player .

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