Gareth Southgate's England under-21s play their first game in a new round of European Championship qualifiers against Norway on Monday. They'll be looking to quickly erase the memory of this summer's tournament in the Czech Republic, when they were knocked out in the group stages. 

But first they faced United States under-23s at Deepdale, Preston, last night, as the US side prepare for their 2016 Olympics qualifiers next month.

The opening exchanges displayed all the characteristics of a friendly, as the players appeared to be working out their own teammates as well as the opposition.

USA U23s lined up in a very British 4-4-2 formation but one in which they looked to play out from the back. England tried to be anything but British with a 4-2-3-1, which occasionally became 4-2-2-2 when Tottenham's Dele Alli moved forward to join Fulham forward Cauley Woodrow in attack.

An early claim from Jordan Pickford brought the first cheers from the crowd, no doubt helped by the fact that the England U21 goalkeeper currently plays his club football at Deepdale, on loan at Preston from Sunderland. 

Midway through the first half, Pickford was involved again when he saved a troublesome shot from outside of the area by Mario Rodriguez.

England kicked into life when Jordon Ibe and Nathan Redmond swapped wings. The latter became more involved from his position on the right and was part of of England's best play in the first half.

His through ball set up the Woodrow, whose shot from close range was well saved by Cody Cropper in the US goal. Woodrow had another chance, this time from an Ibe cross from the left, but was thwarted by Cropper for a second time.

With around a quarter of an hour of the second half gone, England used all nine substitutions and it was one of these, Manchester United's James Wilson, who made the biggest impact on the game.

Winger Duncan Watmore, who replaced Redmond, sneaked a slow cross into the box after a quick free kick from Jake Forster-Caskey. It eventually found its way to Wilson who was alert in the box and able to score from close range.

The goal livened everyone up and Solly March nearly doubled the lead shortly after, but his near-perfect chip over substitute 'keeper Zack Steffen hit the foot of the post.

All four of the wingers used by England showed good pace on the counter-attack. March used his to good effect when he ran half the length of the field to create a scoring opportunity for himself, but his shot from a tight angle was easily saved by Steffen.

Despite the disruption caused by the nine substitutions, England looked better in the second half as they looked to draw the opposition onto them and play on the break.

A number of players impressed individually even if the team didn't always fire on all cylinders and there were encouraging signs from the centre back pairing of Callum Chambers and Eric Dier.

Goalscorer Wilson will hope that his poachers effort was noticed by Louis van Gaal, especially as his Manchester United team have lacked a penalty box threat so far in the Premier League.