Pearce: He may not look it, but he's delighted

Pearce's troops will aim to maintain their 100% start to European Championship qualifying on Monday.

England's next generation of Young Lions have stormed to the top of Group Eight, despite Pearce having declared at the start of qualifying that reaching next summer's finals would be the toughest challenge of his four years as head coach.

Pearce's job has been made all the more difficult by Fabio Capello's decision to draft several players still eligible for the Under-21s into his senior squad, with Jack Rodwell and Kyle Walker the latest to make their debuts in Saturday's shock win over world and European champions Spain.

But Pearce's understudies have more than risen to the occasion in their colleagues' absence, smashing in 16 goals and conceding just one in their four qualifiers to date.

A win in Belgium on Monday would put England within touching distance of a play-off spot, eight points clear of second-placed Norway and 10 ahead of their next opponents.

Pearce said on Sunday: "We've put ourselves in a situation now that, if we beat them tomorrow night, we probably put them out of the competition with regard to the points they can achieve and, historically, the amount of points you need to get out of the group.

"We've put ourselves in a decent position, but we know full well they have to come out and try and win the game against us.

"It'll be an interesting game and we're getting stronger and stronger as a group as time's gone on.

"I think we're beyond my expectations of how tight we would be collectively."

So confident was Pearce in the strength of his squad, he allowed Merseyside stars Ross Barkley and Jon Flanagan to miss Thursday night's 5-0 thrashing of Iceland and play instead for the under-19s against Denmark.

Both returned to the fold ahead of Sunday's trip to Mons and Pearce confirmed both could play some part on Monday.

"Ross Barkley and Jon Flanagan joined us last Thursday evening," he said.

"They went and had 90 minutes down at Brighton, and did well.

"I decided they weren't going to start on Thursday (against Iceland) and I think it is important, at their age, they're playing football.

"I could have kept them with me and been selfish about it but, for their long-term development, they're better off going and playing.

"That way, it's better for the under-19s and better for all of us.

"We've got them back fully fit and vying for a place tomorrow evening now.

England will be without striker Nathan Delfouneso, who returned to Aston Villa after being forced off 11 minutes into Thursday's win in Colchester.

But Blackburn midfielder Jason Lowe and Tottenham defender Adam Smith, who is on loan at MK Dons, have shaken off respective hamstring and ankle injuries.

Pearce said: "Everyone is fully fit that is here and the slight niggles from the last game seem to have solved themselves.

"Young Sammy Ameobi pulled out of training with a slight bug, but we think he'll be fine tomorrow."