By Turftalker
February 17 2004

Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight Burnley Football Club has its first ever England U21 player. Richard Chaplow, 19, has today marked a massive and speedy rise in the footballing world to move from youth team football to international level in one year. READ: On the stroke of the 83rd minute the moment Richard Chaplow, the club and all clarets had been waiting for happened. Number 19 on the night, Chaplow came on for Nigel Reo-Coker and immediately took his place in central midfield.

His trade mark runs, energy and invention were apparent, the skills that David Platt had seen in the Accrington born youngster. He did as much as he could in his 10 minutes of glory and surely this is the beginning of a potentially great U21 career.

On the night a record 25,000+ crowd packed in to the impressive Kingston Communications Stadium in Hull to see England get their 4th victory out of 4 against the Dutch U21 side. 3-2 was the final score with Dean Ashton, David Bentley and Darren Bent scoring for England.

It was a solid looking England side that took the field with the composed Glenn Johnson captaining and playing in the unusual central defensive berth. England looked a bigger side than Holland, who to be honest looked more skillful and enjoyed great passing routines, especially their number 11, Castellen who was fast, skillful and a handful all night.

In the end though England won through and the long road to the European Championships in two years time has begun. Hopefully Richard Chaplow will be part of the U21 squad consistently. Certainly he did nothing to say he will not be tonight.

From all at The Longsider - Well Done Richard Chaplow - Burnley and England.