JIM CRAWFORD LAUDED his Ireland prospects for making history after a 3-1 triumph over back-to-back champions England to secure a Euro U21 play-off.

From a 4-0 loss to Andorra last November, it has been a phenomenal turnaround by the Boys in Green.

“They were outstanding to a man tonight. One hell of a performance. You can’t fault any one of them,” he said.

“Going 1-0 down, and then scoring three unbelievable goals against a top team who will probably go on and win the European Championships. One thing’s for sure, we’re not too far away from them.

“When the [England] goal went in, we showed character. We showed balls, real Irish resilience. We went after them. We weren’t going to park the bus. They stood tall to a man and they were exceptional.”

Asked about beating an England squad valued at €400 million, Crawford quipped: “If they’re worth €400m, we must be worth a hell of a lot more than that, because you’ve seen out there how good we were, how imposing we were.

“Our goals were outstanding, and we had another couple of chances. We had them rattled in our press.

“Slovakia dropped off them and gave them opportunities to control the game, but that wouldn’t be us.

“That wasn’t us when we went to Birmingham. We were the same. We were on the front foot, we were aggressive with it, and they couldn’t handle it.

“And we knew coming to Turner’s Cross that they’d struggle, and I thought they did. If you look at the quality of players they had, they just couldn’t handle the intensity and the pressure that our players put on them.”

Ireland hounded England with that press to produce all three goals.

“That’s our identity. It’s the Irish way to be,” said Crawford.

“You look at the flip side, Andorra and Moldova, we didn’t have that. Since then, we’ve got it in abundance.

“We’ve brought in other players into the squad and they’ve added in terms of their own intensity, their will to win, their desire to wear the green shirt.

“That’s what you need, first and foremost. People wrote us off, they certainly wrote us off, but we’ve showed them now that we’re a decent team.

“And by the way, it’s a young squad. Our two midfielders (Jacob Devaney and Rory Finneran) can go again in the next campaign. Cathal (McCarthy), who’s come and played right wing back, can go again.

“Michael (Noonan) comes on, Grady (McDonnell) comes on, Romeo (Akackukwu), like Jesus Christ, it’s fantastic talent we have.”

Speaking about his two-goal hero, Waterford’s Tommy Lonergan, Crawford added: “Tommy’s been exceptional. He’s great to have around the place. He’s a bubbly character. And I think he showed that he can play at a higher level with his performance there. He’s a fantastic goalscorer and he’s had one hell of a season.”