England Under-21s head coach Gareth Southgate has claimed that a 1-0 victory over USA Under-23s was a promising start to a new era.
After the summer's disappointment at the European Championship, Southgate picked a number of new faces for his latest squad and they managed to earn a win with a goal from substitute James Wilson at Deepdale.
"We've had three-and-a-half days as a group leading up to today, but what's really encouraging is that the players have taken on a lot of information and have a reasonable understanding of how we want to play," Southgate told the Football Association's website.
"We will develop and improve that and the detail of that will increase, but would we have liked to have won the game? We have.
"Would we have liked a clean sheet? We have, and we would have wanted to get everyone a cap, which is important for the group dynamic and to give them 30 minutes as well, so we were pleased."
England start the new Euro qualifying campaign against Norway on Monday.
Callum Mulvihill
