HAVING faced criticism for their lack of home-grown players in recent years, the sight of Jordan Pickford and Duncan Watmore making their England Under-21 debuts will have been a pleasing one for the staff at Sunderland.

Jordan Henderson was the last player to have been involved in the England setup to have progressed through the Academy of Light, with Connor Wickham having already been selected for the under-21s before his 2011 move to Sunderland from Ipswich Town.

Greg Dyke, the Football Association chairman, picked Sunderland as an example when speaking about Premier League clubs’ failure to invest in young English talent in 2013 after bringing in only one English player out of 14 in the transfer window, saying: “No-one can argue that the overall trend isn’t anything but alarming.

“Last season the number of English players under the age of 21 who appeared in the Premier League filled only 2.3 per cent of the total number of minutes played. Only 35 English players under the age of 21 made appearances.”

But in Pickford and Watmore, who made their under-21 debuts in the friendly against the United States of America Under-23 side on Thursday night, Sunderland have two highly-promising players capable of going on to earn full honours.

Watmore, having scored two goals in three substitute appearances for the Black Cats this season, is pushing for his first Premier League start for the club after representing the development squad with distinction. The youngster, signed from Altrincham in 2013, won the Premier League Under-21 player of the year last season and was voted the Revelation of the Tournament while playing for England’s under-20 side in the Toulon Tournament over the summer.

The forward scored a consolation goal in Sunderland's 3-1 Premier League defeat to Norwich City and scored the sixth goal in the 6-3 Capital One Cup win over Exeter City.

Pickford, on loan at Preston North End having enjoyed stints at Bradford City and Darlington in previous seasons, is expected by staff within Sunderland to be a first-team prospect in the future.

The 21-year-old kept a clean sheet in his 60 minutes of action in a game that England won 1-0, James Wilson getting the winner from a Watmore assist.

"It was really good, the fans came out in force as well and it was a great honour and a privilege to make my debut,” said Pickford, having represented his country at every age level from 16 to 21 despite never making a senior appearance for his hometown club.

"I'm really proud of it and to do it in Preston and to get a good reception was really pleasing too.

"As a goalkeeper you want a clean sheet and then the lads came on and got the goal, so it was good all round.

"We only got together three days ago so it was a really good performance keeping a cleansheet and getting the win."

Pickford and Watmore have been included in Southgate’s Under-21s squad in the wake of the side’s disappointing display in the European Championships in Czech Republic.

The former Middlesbrough boss brought nine more new players into the setup and Southgate was pleased with the impact they made on Thursday night.

"Given the short period of time the players have had with us they really took ideas on quickly,” said Southgate.

"We've had three-and-a-half days as a group before today. Players have taken on a lot of info. We will develop that and improve that.

"We would have liked to have won, we have, we would have liked to have kept a clean sheet, we have.

"I liked a lot of our work with the ball. We caused our own problems really, conceding possession in bad areas and that can improve.

"Most pleasing of all was that the mentality of the players who came on was really outstanding and that serves us well for the future."

Sunderland midfielder Seb Larsson will represent Sweden today in Russia, having missed a crucial penalty in the last match between the two sides.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic not on the pitch, Larsson stepped up to take a spot-kick which would have given his country victory against the Russians, but goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev saved it.

And Larsson said: “Of course it hurts when you think about it. There are many things in his career that you look back on and that hurts.

"Of course it hurts, but I’ve got past it.”

When asked who would be on spot-kick duties today, Larsson said: “It’s Zlatan. But if you ask if I want to take it, yes, I will.”

Jeremain Lens has been called up for the Netherlands to face Turkey in a friendly tomorrow.