John delighted with Josh's progress

John McDermott is hoping Josh Onomah caps a fine campaign by winning UEFA U17 Championship gold with England on Wednesday.

The Young Lions take on Holland in the final at the Ta’ Qali National Stadium in Malta, kick-off 6pm UK time.

Midfielder Josh has featured in three of the four games in Malta as England secured an early spot in the last four with victories over Malta and Turkey before losing to the Dutch in the final group match.

He was on the bench for the semi-final against Portugal but injury to Newcastle’s Adam Armstrong meant he entered the fray after just 36 minutes.

England were under the cosh at the time but a Man of the Match performance from Josh helped the team settle and run out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Chelsea’s Dominic Solanke and Fulham’s prolific forward Patrick Roberts.

John Peacock’s men now face Holland again in the final and Academy Manager John feels the tournament will further add to Josh’s experiences this season - a season where he’s featured 17 times (three goals) in the Barclays U18 Premier League, three times in the U21 Premier League, twice (one goal) in the FA Youth Cup and made the bench for the first team in our Europa League R32 tie in Dnipro in February.

“This culminates a year where he’s played in Belgium, the States, Vietnam, Germany and when he’s back from Malta, he’ll travel with us to the Terborg Tournament in Holland,” said John.

“He’s had a magnificent games programme this season and hopefully he’ll benefit from that.

“He’s also trained with the first team and been on the bench a couple of times. Another thing I’m pleased about is that he’s matured as a young man, not just on the football pitch, but off it. I’m really pleased with his overall development, not just his football development.

“The internationals complement the games programme he’s had with us, his exposure to the first team and he’s now set himself a high standard to both maintain and kick-on again next season.

“He’s put very positive pressure on himself, we expect improvement year in, year out and he’s set the bench high.”