Nathan Redmond hoping experience pays dividends for England youngsters

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 14 June 2015

England Under-21s winger Nathan Redmond is confident that he and his teammates will 'do themselves proud' as they finalise their preparations for the European Championships.

Nathan Redmond has conceded that England Under-21s' last taste of tournament action was "embarrassing" after they failed to pick up a single point at the 2013 Euros.

The Young Lions head into this year's competition on a real high, having won nine and drawn one of their Group 1 qualifying fixtures to reach the Czech Republic finals in style.

However, Norwich City star Redmond remains wary on the back of England's failed campaign two years ago, which he hopes will help him and his teammates this time around.

"I played in the last one and it was my first U-21s involvement, so I'm looking to take that experience going into this one," he told the FA's official website. "But we know that we don't want to be playing like that again.

"We don't want to have that feeling of not winning a game and getting knocked out in the group stages. We've [Jack Butland and Nathaniel Chalobah, who were also in that squad] let the lads know that in the finals, it's a big thing and to get knocked out and not win a game - it's borderline embarrassing.

"So we feel now that we've got a group of guys who are willing to work hard for each other and put themselves on the line to at least do ourselves proud."

Gareth Southgate's men taken on Portugal in their opening U21 Euro 2015 game on Thursday evening.