Just like his cousin Theo, Jacob Walcott is a man in form and the Reading forward earned England Under 17’s a 1-1 draw against Spain in La Orotava last night, to send them through to the next stage of the European championships.

The tournament started last Wednesday with Spain thumping Estonia 6-0, while in the later game England could only manage a 0-0 draw with Armenia. That left the group finely poised, Spain looked the hot team, beating Armenia 2-0 on Friday but the England Lions found their roar to batter Estonia 7-0. Englands goals were spread around, Evertons Jose Baxter hit 2, the rest came from Tom Parkes (Leicester City), Jonjo Shelvey (Charlton Athletic), Luke Freeman (Arsenal), Liam Head (Plymouth Argyle), and Ryan Tunnicliffe (Manchester United).

The top 2 countries would go through to the Elite qualifying round in Nyon, Switzerland in December so England and Spain knew they were both more or less secure but there was a lot of pride to play for and both teams had a clean sheet to protect. Jacob Walcott scored after 10 minutes beating Villareals Gran Canarian goalie Kilian Falcon. Englands task got harder after captain Eddie Oshodi (Watford) and Emmanuel Frimpong (Arsenal) both got sent off for second yellow cards. England held out until 80 minutes when an unfortunate own goal by Ezekiel Fryers (Manchester United) tied the game.

In the end Spain and England were both happy to progress in the competition and the north of Tenerife got to witness some international football. Lots of names to look out for on the England side as they start to push their way into their clubs first teams and maybe look for a place in the squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.Â