England 1 Norway 3: Pearce still backed by captain as Young Lions make early exit

After nine successive wins without conceding, the Young Lions arrived in Israel among the favourites for the title.

Instead, they became the first side to exit the competition after woeful defeats to Italy and Norway put the semi-finals beyond them with a game to spare.

It is hardly how Pearce had hoped the tournament would pan out, especially having spoken of his desire to stay on as Under-21s manager before the opening game.

Whether the Football Association extends his contract past the end of the month remains to be seen and, despite overseeing group exits in successive tournaments, Henderson hopes he stays on.

“Of course I want Pearce to stay,” said the Young Lions captain. “He has been a brilliant manager since I’ve come into the 21s. Obviously you can see his record – we got to the final a few tournaments ago and lost to a good team in Germany.

“He has been brilliant with all of us so I would love to see him stay on.”

Despite such backing, Pearce is odds on with the bookmakers to leave the Under-21s post.

It is no real surprise given England failed so miserably in a group many had expected them to qualify from.

“I can’t believe it,” said Henderson. “There was high hopes going into the tournament.

“It is very disappointing and all the lads were devastated in the dressing room, but I think we battled and kept on going to the end.

“I thought we played better against Norway, to be honest. I think we dominated the game, dominated possession of the ball but we have conceded very bad goals as well so we can’t believe it, really.”

Amongst the many reasons for the Under-21s’ failure is the fact key eligible players were unavailable to Pearce.

Instead of travelling to Israel, the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck played friendlies for the senior team against Ireland and Brazil.

“If you look at other countries they do bring their best players,” said Henderson.

“Obviously we didn’t bring a few that were with the senior team. At the same time, that gives other people an opportunity to come in and show what they can do. We’ve got one more game left and we have to go out with a bang.”

That final chance to restore some pride comes in the form of tomorrow’s Group A dead rubber against hosts Israel in Jerusalem.

Goals from Fredrik Semb Berge, Jo Inge Berget and Magnus Eikrem put Norway three goals up before Craig Dawson scored from the penalty spot.

England: Butland, Smith, Caulker, Dawson (Wisdom 85), Rose, Chalobah, Henderson, Lowe (Wickham 46), Ince, Zaha, Redmond (Shelvey 67). Unused substitutes: Steele, Clyne, Lees, Robinson, McEachran, Lansbury, Delfouneso, Sordell, Rudd.

Norway: Nyland, Elabdellaoui, Rogne (Nordtveit 83), Semb Berge (Linnes 58), Strandberg, Singh, Johansen, Eikrem (Ibrahim 68), Berget, Pedersen, Nielsen. Unused substitutes: Ostbo, Berisha, Henriksen, de Lanlay, Konradssen, Kastrati, King.

Referee: S Boiko (Ukraine).