‘It’s working really well with Chris Smalling’ – new Manchester United signing Phil Jones remains upbeat ahead of England Under-21s crunch game

Phil Jones, England

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Despite England‘s stalemate tonight with Ukraine leaving them in need of a win in their final 2012 European Under-21 Championships group game, centre-half Phil Jones has remained buoyant.

In an underwhelming result for the Three Lions despite a decent enough display, Jones shone throughout with a mature and robust display.

With Daniel Sturridge, after a thunderous volley cannoned off the crossbar, the only other name who escaped with credibility, the game cast a dark cloud over England’s ambitions in Denmark.

However, Jones took comfort in the second half display that saw England seize the initiative and is adament that England are comfortable with the pressurised nature of the final group game.

“The lads are disappointed in the changing rooms,” he told Sky Sports.

“We knew we didn’t play well in the first half and that we had to respond in the second and I thought we done that. We just weren’t lucky enough to get a goal in the end.

“We’re still in it and we know what we have to do and I’m sure we can produce that.

“We move on, we get on the training pitch and we work on what we weren’t best at and put that right in the next game.

With eyebrows raised over the price of Jones’ recent move to champions Manchester United, the 19-year was certain to be under intense scrutiny.

Yet, a dominant display at the heart of the England defence ultimately proved the side’s saviour, with Jones at the heart of the stoic defending, alongside new-team mate Chris Smalling.

“I’m pleased, just disappointed that we didn’t get the three points. It was a team effort, we’ve come together and we will stick together and we’ll dig in,” he said.

“It’s working really well with Chris Smalling. I like playing with him. We read what each other does and it’s working well.”

The result means Sunday’s match with Czech is a must-win for England should they hope to leapfrog their opposition to occupy second place and progression in the tournament, though Jones is adamant that the players are up to the challenge.

“If you would have said to us before the tournament that we were coming into the last game that would a win would take us through, we would have probably taken that. We’ll go into that game full of confidence,” he said.