Jeffers' strike not enough for ragged England

England Under-21 1 Turkey Under-21 1

It was somehow appropriate that Francis Jeffers should equal Alan Shearer's record of 13 England Under-21 goals on Tyneside, with the great man watching from the stands.

Individual achievements, including being named man-of-the-match by Shearer, were not, however, enough. After the combination of a hard-fought draw against a high-class, technically excellent Turkish side and Portugal's 2-0 victory over Slovakia, David Platt faces an uphill struggle to steer his charges to the European Under-21 Championship finals.

This morning England lie third, two points behind Portugal and three behind the Turks, with only the winners of Group Seven guaranteed to qualify for the play-offs. Had Turkey not been pegged back after a fine start, it might have been worse, although Shearer, ever the hard taskmaster, thought Jeffers should have had at least two.

The chances the Arsenal striker missed, at the beginning and end of the match, were more straightforward than the goal he did score in the 25th minute which cancelled out a lead Turkey had carved out with some effortless interplay. Platt pronounced himself "pleased with the performance, delighted by the energy but disappointed with the result". It might, however, have been worse.

The result was at least better than the mauling England endured in Portugal on Friday, and they improved considerably after a breathless opening marked by two goals of exceptional quality. At no stage did England's defence, especially Jlloyd Samuel, who was employed on the opposite flank to his normal station at Villa Park, seem comfortable dealing with Tuncay Sanli, and in the 13th minute Okan Koc picked up Ibrahim Yavuz's square ball, producing a beautiful, curling cross that Tuncay met fractionally before Peter Clarke.

Frankly, he might have had more. He was denied once by the side-netting after Joe Cole had made a disastrous attempt to showboat in his own area, once by an offside flag and once by a fine save by Wolverhampton's impressive goalkeeper, Matt Murray. Tuncay was, incidentally, the driving force behind Turkey's 4-2 defeat of Portugal, which may yet be the group's decisive fixture.

England had skills of their own, most notably a diagonal pass of great vision by Gareth Barry, which Jeffers chested down on the run and, noticing a slight hesitation by the goalkeeper, shot beautifully into the corner of Volkan Demirel's net. Thereafter, England were worth their draw.

The last time these sides had met, in the 2000 European Under-21 finals, Howard Wilkinson's side scored six against a disinterested, already eliminated team. However, the days when England could thrash Turkey are gone at both full and Under-21 level.

ENGLAND UNDER-21 (4-4-2): Murray (Wolves); Samuel (Aston Villa), Clarke (Everton), Dawson (Nottingham Forest), Konchesky (Charlton); J Cole (West Ham), Prutton (Southampton), Jenas (Newcastle), Barry (Aston Villa); Defoe (West Ham), Jeffers (Arsenal). Substitutes: C Cole (Chelsea) for Defoe, 64; Johnson (West Ham) for Samuel, 7.

TURKEY UNDER-21 (3-4-3): Volkan (Fenerbahce); Servet (Denizlispor), Suat (Galatasaray), Ibrahim Toraman (Gaziantepspor); Serkan (Genclerbirligi), Ugur (St Pauli), Kemal (Fenerbahce), Ibrahim Yavuz (Adanaspor); Okan (Genclerbirligi), Huseyin (Ankaragucu), Tuncay (Fenerbahce). Substitutes: Sinan (Altay) for Okan, 90; Hamit (Wattenscheid 09) for Huseyin, 90

Referee: J Rodriguez Santiago (Spain).