A distant relative of Arsenal winger Theo Walcott was the hero for England under 17s as Jacob came off the bench to fire the winner against Israel in front of just over 2,000 enthusiastic supporters at London Road.

England had the better of the early exchanges and should have opened the scoring on 17 minutes when a shot from John Bostock deflected into the path of Tom Hitchcock but the Blackburn Rovers front man shot tamely at Aviram Ziat.

Striker Zedan Ammar tested goalkeeper Deale Chamberlain with a low drive from just inside the penalty area as Israel responded.

Israeli midfielder Shadi Shaban should have done better as the ball fell kindly to him 20 yards from goal but he couldn't keep the ball down and it flew well over the cross bar.

England should have been awarded a free-kick and Israel keeper Ziat should have been carded after blatantly handling the ball outside the area 15 minutes into the second half, however the officials failed to spot the incident and played on to the dismay of the home faithful.

Bostock, who moved to Tottenham Hotspur from Crystal Palace earlier in the year, sent a low shot past the far post as England sensed they could find the break-through before the end of this International fixture.

England introduced Jacob Walcott with 10 minutes remaining and the substitute received a warm reception from the supporters. Walcott is distant relative of Arsenal winger Theo.

The deadlock was finally broken five minutes from time as substitute WALCOTT raced into the area and from a tight angle managed to squeeze the ball over Ziat and into the back of the net.

Final Score: England 1-0 Israel

England: Chamberlain, Reckford, Oshodi, Mantom, Medez-Laing (sub Park), Benali, Hitchcock (sub Walcott), Bostock, Baggie (sub Tunnicliffe), Jenkinson, Parkes. Subs: Allsop, Marsh-Brown, Fryers, Edwards.

Israel: Ziat, Yamin, Tawatha, Lagrisi, EL-Amori, Azzam, Shaban (sub Adawi), Elbaz (sub Polak), Ammar (sub Osman), Qut, Rozenbaom. Subs: Barsky, Hijazi, George, Strauss.

Referee: D Whitestone
Attendance: 2,002