England manager Gareth Southgate has singled Harry Winks out for special praise following his senior international debut during the 1-0 win over Lithuania this evening.
Winks's performance was one of few positives for England from another unconvincing display which saw them scrape past a team ranked 120th in the world courtesy of a first-half penalty from Harry Kane.
Southgate acknowledged that the winning margin was not as big as he would have liked, but urged fans to bear in mind mitigating circumstances such as their sweeping changes and the artificial pitch.
"We haven't scored the number of goals we would have liked to but we gave three full debuts and wanted to try something. A bit more quality in the final third is what was missing," he told ITV Sport.
"They had a packed defence, we were a fraction off. Running at people on that surface doesn't work, we needed one-twos and quick passes. It's a completely different challenge against Brazil and Germany next month.
"Put today into context. We made seven changes, that inevitably means that you will be disjointed at times. Harry Winks showed real calm, his use of the ball was excellent. Three at the back worked in some aspects but we are still open in counter-attack."
The win means that England have now won four consecutive matches for the first time since October 2015.
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