England Under-21s have won their fifth successive match in all competitions courtesy of a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Romania Under-21s in Saturday's friendly at Molineux.

Demarai Gray - skipper for the night - and Jake Clarke-Salter - on his debut - both got on the scoresheet for England and although Valentin Costache halved the deficit in the closing stages, the Three Lions were able to hold on for the win.

England started the match on top with Kieran Dowell drilling a free kick marginally over the crossbar in the third minute, and it did not take long for the home side to go ahead.

Kyle Walker-Peters and Ademola Lookman combined to set up Gray inside the penalty area and once the winger had moved past a defender, his resulting shot was deflected into the bottom corner of the net by Leicester City teammate Alex Pascanu.

Moments after falling behind, Romania should have been level. Florinel Coman was played in down the left-hand side of the penalty area, but his shot - under little pressure - was sent high over the crossbar.

England continued to make most of the running but as the first half progressed, the visitors began to force their hosts into mistakes and it almost paid off just before the half-hour mark.

After England had conceded possession in their own half, the ball was quickly played to Andrei Ivan - who was all on his own around 20 yards from goal - but despite the Krasnodar forward getting his shot past Dean Henderson, Clarke-Salter got back to divert his effort onto the post.

Romania continued to put England under pressure and mistakes led to opportunities for both Coman and Mihai Dobre, but both players failed to sufficiently test Henderson between the sticks.

England improved after the restart, but Romania continued to carve out the better openings, with Walker-Peters having to get a foot in at the back post to prevent a certain equaliser for the visitors.

However, once the hour mark had come and gone, England began to dominate and they came close to a second when Tammy Abraham's header struck the top of the crossbar after goalkeeper Ionut Radu had slipped on the line.

Ademola Lookman then hit the post having drifted inside onto his right foot but England eventually got their second from a corner when Clarke-Salter powered a header into the net via the inside of the post after meeting Trent Alexander-Arnold's corner.

England appeared in control but with 11 minutes remaining, Romania halved the deficit when Costache fired the ball into the net from close range after Henderson had failed to deal with a free kick from a deep position.

The home side were in danger of finishing the match on the back foot, but Boothroyd introduced both James Maddison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin and between them, the pair squandered three chances in as many minutes.

Maddison fired marginally wide of the far post from an acute angle, before Calvert-Lewin chipped the ball just over the crossbar and missed the target by inches with a low drive.

However, the danger was not over and after four minutes of added time were signalled, Henderson was forced into action to keep out Coman's swerving free kick from 25 yards.

Walker-Peters then had to get his body in the way to keep out Costache's shot from close range, but it proved to be Romania's final chance as the home side just about clung on for victory.

ENGLAND UNDER-21S (4-2-3-1): Henderson; Alexander-Arnold, Tomori, Clarke-Salter, Walker-Peters; Ejaria, Maitland-Niles (Onomah 70'); Gray (Kenny 59'), Dowell (Maddison 84'), Lookman; Abraham (Calvert-Lewin 84')

ROMANIA UNDER-21S (4-3-1-2): I.Radu; Pascanu, Nedelcu (Dumitrescu 86'), Ghita, A.Radu (Olteanu 69'); Dobre (Costache 62'), Oaida (Ciobanu 46'), Butean (Capusa 86'); Hagi; Coman, Ivan (Petre 69')