England U21 2, Ukraine U21 1: Fairytale finish for boyhood Sheffield United fan Dominic Calvert-Lewin at Bramall Lane

Less than 24 hours after revealing it was his greatest regret in football, former Sheffield United protégé Dominic Calvert-Lewin can now say he has scored in front of The Kop at Bramall Lane.
Calvert-Lewin celebrates his goal. Pic: Simon Bellis/SportimageCalvert-Lewin celebrates his goal. Pic: Simon Bellis/Sportimage
Calvert-Lewin celebrates his goal. Pic: Simon Bellis/Sportimage

Three years since progressing through the club's youth system and at the seventh time of asking, the centre-forward finally achieved his lifelong ambition as England under-21's recorded a hard-fought victory over Ukraine.

The result, secured when Dominic Solanke cancelled out Mykola Shaparenko's equaliser, ensured Aidy Boothroyd's squad remain on course to reach next summer's European Championship finals and stretched their unbeaten run in qualifying to 31 games.

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Only the fact he now wears the blue of Everton rather than the red and white stripes of his beloved Blades prevented Calvert-Lewin's finish from being the perfect fairytale moment.

"I'd been thinking about it beforehand," Calvert-Lewin, who made 12 appearances for United before moving to Merseyside last summer, said. "Getting a goal there, at that end of the pitch here, is something I've always wanted to do. So when it happened, when the ball went into the back of the net, I just looked up into the stand and tried to take it all in."

Thanks to some long-awaited joined up thinking behind the scenes at the FA, the Young Lions are now a finishing school for senior internationals rather than somewhere to park youngsters not quite good enough for football's greatest stage. But, for long periods of the first-half, it seemed as if Boothroyd's players had taken Gareth Southgate's diktat about the importance of patience far too seriously.

The build-up was ponderous and, as the interval approached, some dangerous extravagance would have gifted the visitors a goal but for Dael Fry's quick wits. Fortunately Demari Gray was not bothered about keeping possession for possession's sake and it was his run and cross which, just before the Middlesbrough defender's interception, created the chance which Calvert-Lewin prodded wide.

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He finished perfectly, however, after out-muscling a defender before stabbing past the onrushing Abdriy Lunin.

"That's what Dom is all about," Boothroyd said. "He makes unselfish runs and his very brave."

Boothroyd had warned Ukraine would provide dogged opposition and so, from his vantage point of the touchline, he will not have been surprised to see Shaparenko drag them level after the interval before Solanke's late finish restored England's lead.

"That's a big outcome for us," Boothroyd added. "You could see what it meant at the end."

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England: Gunn, Kenny, Chilwell, Davies, Fry, Worrall, Gray (Lookman 73), Onomah, Calvert-Lewin (Maitland-Niles 90), Maddison (Solanke 77), Sessegnon. Not used: Woodman, Abraham, Clarke-Salter, Walker-Peters.

Ukraine: Lunin, Lukyanchuk, Kravets, Lunov (Tretyakov 81), Vakulko (Shaparenko 62), Kovalenko, Zotko, Shepeliev, Pikhalonok, Dovbyk (, Zubkov 74), Luchkevych. Not used: Makhankov, Tymchyk, Tsymbaliuk, Shved.

Referee: Mads-Kristoffer Kristoffersen. Attendance: 22,601