Stuart Pearce has the backing of Ashley Young despite England's interim manager admitting he is not yet ready for the job.
Manchester United winger thinks squad bonded under interim boss
Stuart Pearce has the backing of Ashley Young despite England's interim manager admitting he is not yet ready for the job on a long-term permanent basis.
Caretaker manager Pearce watched Holland snatch a 3-2 victory at the death in Wednesday's friendly at Wembley after Young netted a stoppage-time equaliser.
Pearce could yet remain in charge for the European Championship if the Football Association does not appoint a permanent successor to Fabio Capello until after the summer tournament.
And Manchester United winger Young believes the 49-year-old did his bid to lead England in Poland and Ukraine no harm at all this week.
"The last few days have been good," said Young. "Everybody's got bonded and got on with the job.
Opportunity
"We don't know who's going to be the manager, but Stuart Pearce was manager for this game and I think he did well."
Young added: "We're building towards the summer - that's what we're looking forward to.
"Some of the new boys that come into the squad who haven't got so many caps are looking to cement their place and they're going to get their opportunity to do that."
Young's United team-mates, Danny Welbeck, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling, were among them, the former making his full debut and the latter starting at centre-back for the first time.
He said of Welbeck: "He's been brilliant for Man United throughout the season and he was brilliant again.
"He obviously would've wanted to get on the scoresheet, but he ran non-stop and worked hard for us."
Sickening
Smalling went further still, putting his body on the line to try to keep out Holland's second goal only to suffer a sickening clash of heads with Klaas Jan Huntelaar.
Young said: "Obviously it's not too nice to see him go off in the way that he did. Hopefully, he's going to be all right."
Former Aston Villa star Young, who netted for the fourth time in his last five internationals, added: "I was delighted to get my goal and delighted with my performance.
"It'd been even better if we'd got a draw. The team spirit we showed to get back in the game was vitally important. It's a sucker blow when you concede right at the death."
