Watch: Jonjo Shelvey v. Austria

England's U21 match against Austria didn't start out quite as smoothly as their thrashing of Romania on Thursday, but in the end the Austrians going down to nine men rather took all the guesswork out of the night and helped hand a lopsided 4-0 scoreline to the hosts.

Against a better opponent and without Jordan Henderson running the show in midfield, England reverted to the kind of direct, agrarian football manager Stewart Pearce has in the past been known for, exchanging punts with Austria until the sendings off left them more room to work with.

Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey, meanwhile, had a bit of a mixed night that mirrored England's. He was one of the worst offenders when it came to looking long first, and watching him send crossfield passes either to opponents or straight out of bounds became a far too common sight.

He was hardly alone in such play, though, and in his sixty minutes on the pitch he was still England's most effective attacker, scoring the game's winning goal and setting up multiple chances for his teammates. In the end, then, a little good to go along with a little bad—and still, perhaps, a little to learn.

Video by MrBoywunder