England boys grab last-gasp winner at New Bucks Head

But it took England until the last kick of the game – a penalty from Everton's John Lundstram – before they finally edged out Kimmo Lipponen's technically-gifted side.

Without the attacking talent of Manchester United's Nick Powell, who had been promoted to Stuart Pearce's under-21s on duty in Blackpool last night, and Liverpool's Raheem Sterling, who is in the senior squad tackling Sweden today, Blake's youngsters lacked a cutting edge until the closing stages.

But this proved a useful work for them in front of an enthusiastic 2,910 crowd and excellent preparation for the final group stages from which they hope to qualify for next summer's European Championships in Lithuania.

"There are no easy games in international football," pointed out Blake. "Finland came here and made it hard for us.

"But the squad we had here is nowhere near full-strength with Nick Powell with the under-21s and Raheem with the senior squad.

"That was Finland's best team at this level. I know what we've got and I was really pleased how our boys applied themselves."

While England dominated physically, they often found it hard to retrieve the ball off the slick Finns for periods of the first-half.

Jordon Pickford had to be alert when coming off his line to frustrate Matias Ojala, while centre-half Jack O'Connell executed a couple of decisive early clearances to prevent the pacy Finns from getting in behind.

Highly-rated West Ham teenager Blair Turgott struggled to make an impact. His attempt to plant an overhead kick on Bradley Potts' delivery ended in failure and epitomised England's struggles to make a breakthrough.

Wingman Jacob Murphy, though, was a constant thorn in Finnish flesh.

The Norwich City attacker, whose twin brother Josh was included on the bench, tested Daniel Kollar with a fierce strike and went close with a 25-yard effort which dipped just over before the break.

But while the quality of football was well up to international youth standard there was a lack of goalmouth excitement .

Market Drayton-based keeper Ben Garrett was drafted on at the start of the second period. But the Crewe Alex reserve hardly had to extend himself as England took control.

But England at least posed a threat on Kollar's goal in the second-half with O'Connell glancing a header wide from a corner and substitute Adebayo Azeez offering some neat skill to bypass a couple of challenges before depositing an effort straight at the Finnish keeper.

The Charlton Athletic striker injected some energy into proceedings in the closing stages and he was running the ball out of play when Kollar rashly dashed off his line in stoppage time and flattened him.

That left England skipper Lundstram, who had run the second-half from central midfield, to send the keeper the wrong way from the spot for the winner.