WE were given a glimpse of the future and how encouraging it is.

Derek Davis

WE were given a glimpse of the future and how encouraging it is.

Future full internationals were on show at a new ground that Colchester United are hoping will be this near to capacity more often when their fortunes improve.

England in red shirts, Germany in white, it was all very 1966 and all that, and by the time the World Cup is next held in this country, hopefully in 2018, some of these youngsters will be established full internationals.

Just as 40 years ago England emerged victorious and dare we hope in 10 years time they will be again - maybe even against the old enemy in a Wembley final.

The winner came from the England skipper, Arsenal midfielder Henri Lansbury, who a week ago was helping to dump Premier League Wigan out of the League Cup.

His powerful low drive from 20 yards stemmed from good work by Manchester United's Danny Welbeck, who scored his first Premier League goal on Saturday in their demolition of Stoke City.

Those two alone showed the seniors who don't cherish playing for their country whenever called upon, that there is talent coming through to replace them.

The argument that England doesn't have top quality players coming through was blown away by some of these performers.

Ben Amos, another Manchester United graduate, had to make good saves from Bayer Leverkusen's Richard Sakuta-Pasu and Cologne's Taner Yalcin, but on the whole England were on top.

The Colchester fans even had their own star to adore as Lee Hills, on loan from Crystal Palace, started at left-back and hit a shot over the bar in a bright first half.

The first ever international game played in Colchester was a tribute to all the hard work put in by everyone involved in getting the stadium built, in particular the low profile U's president Peter Heard who was a driving force behind the project.

Nearly 10,000 fans, many young supporters who are as much the future of the game as the players, crammed into the Community Stadium at Cuckoo Farm.

They generated the best atmosphere so far at the U's ground, and were a sporting and respectful crowd.

Respect too for the visiting journalist, who not only sang the German national anthem, but God Save the Queen as well.

It paid to get to the Community Stadium early as traffic was a nightmare around Colchester.

Problems with parking and the congestion meant kick-off was delayed for 10 minutes and even then hundreds of supporters missed the early exchanges.

My personal experience was that the stewards handled the situation extremely well and while the chaos may have taken the sheen off the whole evening for some, little of the blame could be laid at Colchester United's door.

Rather the Colchester Borough Council need to look at how they can improve access and parking at and around the stadium.

Ipswich Town manager Jim Magilton and chairman David Sheepshanks were in the directors' box along with other dignitaries.

They will remember a certain Darren Bent banging in a couple for the England Under-19s against Germany on Valentine's Day 2002, with Ipswich team-mates Darren Ambrose and Matt Bloomfield also in the side that won 3-1 in front of 20,000 at Portman Road.

Bent will be hoping for repeat tonight when he is expected to win his second full England cap, coincidentally against Germany in Berlin.

England Under 19s: Amos, Trippier (Spence, 87), Hills, Rodwell, Hoyte, Baker, Lansbury (Woods, 77) Drinkwater, Welbeck (Delfouneso, 46) Mellis Murphy, 87) Moses (Franks, 87) Subs not used: Mattock, Smithies.

Germany Under 19s: Bauman, Fardi, Kirchhoff (Gundogan, 87) Tiexeira, Funk, Wolze, Holtby, Rudy, Sakuta-Pasu, Yalcin, Backer (Vukcevic, 46) Subs not used: Rode, Jantschke, Vollath, Broghammer, Tsoumou.

Referee: Kevin Friend (Leics) Attendance: 9,692.