England Under-21s manager Gareth Southgate is content with his side's preparations as they get ready to depart for the European Championships in the Czech Republic.
The Young Lions fly to Prague on Sunday after completing their build-up for the summer tournament with a laboured 1-0 friendly win over Belarus at Oakwell on Thursday night.
Despite a plethora of Barclays Premier League stars in their starting line-up and coming off the bench, including man-of-the-moment Harry Kane, Southgate's men had to wait until the 82nd minute to break down a Belarus side, who only arrived in South Yorkshire 25 minutes before kick-off, thanks to Ben Gibson's close-range strike.
It was far from the goal-fest many pre-match tipsters were predicting, but Southgate was happy to wind up their preparations with a win before attention turns to their opening group game against Portugal next Thursday.
And Southgate believes basing themselves at St George's Park was the right decision.
"I think we have needed this game," Southgate said. "One or two of the lads in particular didn't have so many minutes at the end of the season, so it's good for people like Tom Carroll, who has had an injury, to get closer to 90 minutes.
"I am really pleased with the two weeks we have had. It was the right thing to be at St George's, I think that was the right message for the team.
"We weren't disappearing to somewhere warm and sunny where the focus isn't totally about the training, I think that was important.
"But we have also split that camp with a couple of days at home for the players, which is also important. We have been able to focus on what we're about and the three teams in our group.
"I think everybody is ready now.
"There's a bit of sparring with the warm-up games and there's been important preparation done with the three group matches that we've got, even the two after Portugal.
"But we can really hone in on Portugal now, which is going to be a really good game of football and a difficult test, but we're all looking forward to the challenge."
Gibson's winner against the eastern European nation was fitting reward for the Middlesbrough defender, who has been an integral part of Southgate's squad over the last 12 months.
Although he picked PFA young player of the year Kane, it could have been easy for the former Boro manager to load his squad with further high-profile Premier League talent.
Ross Barkley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Raheem Sterling and Phil Jones were all eligible to play in the competition, but were not selected.
And Southgate believes his players deserve their chance to impress in the Czech Republic.
"There's always a good debate for bringing some of the more experienced senior players," he added.
"I just think this group have worked so hard to get to this point, I think they deserve the opportunity to go and take the challenge on.
"I think you get more from a team perspective when the hunger and desire is there in the group."
Source: PA
