Jarrod Bowen expressed his disappointment over his disallowed goal in England’s 2-2 draw with Belgium on Tuesday.
The West Ham United forward thought he had completed the turnaround for the Three Lions in the Wembley friendly clash – and scored his first England goal in the process - when he nodded home Declan Rice's flick on at the back post after 27 minutes – only for it to be ruled out for offside.
Youri Tielemans put Belgium ahead after just eleven minutes, but it was cancelled out little over six minutes later as Ivan Toney marked his first England start with the equaliser from the spot.
Tielemans headed in his second at the far post to restore the Belgians' lead before the break and, with virtually the last kick of the game, Jude Bellingham spared England a second successive defeat.
“I’m really disappointed with the goal [being disallowed] as it didn’t cross my mind and didn’t think I was offside in the slightest, but as soon as the referee was checking it, I knew it was going to be disallowed,” said Bowen.
“That’s probably the most disappointing thing tonight, that I didn’t come away with a goal, but the two performances that I have put in I’m really happy with.
“On another day we could have scored five or six. I feel as if we got ourselves into some good areas of the pitch, had some nice link-up play and some good efforts on goal. Getting the goal at the end shows a bit of character that’s in the squad. Coming here and not losing tonight in the end was good for us.
“We kept it late and kept everyone on their toes, but it shows the resilience and character to keep going. We were disappointed with the defeat [to Brazil] this week as it’s not the standards that have been set over the years and, even though the performances have been there, I think we deserved more than the draw. In the end, we kept fighting and got the goal.
“Everyone played their part. It was Madders [James Maddison] who played the ball to Jude [Bellingham] at the end, and it was all about those players making an impact, not just the starting XI, but the players who came off the bench as well. There’s been a lot of players used this week and I think that [having flexibility] is a really important thing if you want to be a top side.”
