JORDAN HENDERSON admits England’s failure at the European U21 Championships has left him “devastated”.

The Liverpool midfielder has been captaining Stuart Pearce’s team at the tournament in Israel, but saw his side eliminated after defeats in their opening two group games. A 3-1 loss to Norway on Saturday confirmed their exit, after they had lost to Italy 1-0 in their first group match.

Henderson said following the Norway game: “It’s frustrating. I felt as though in the first 20 minutes we were dominating the game, we had a lot of the ball, a couple of chances, but we conceded a bad goal at a bad time and it just deflated us a little bit.

“But I still felt we dominated possession of the ball, we just weren’t good enough in the final third. We’ve defended brilliantly over the last two years, throughout the whole campaign. Today, as a team, the whole team, not just the defence, the whole team didn’t defend as we have done.

“I still felt we pressed the ball high up the pitch and got it back early. We’re just devastated.”

England will complete their campaign in a dead-rubber against hosts Israel tomorrow, with Henderson adding: “It’s hard, you get knocked out of the tournament and you’ve still got a game left.

“But you’re still putting that England shirt on, you’re still representing your country, which is a massive honour. You’ve got to go out there and do it for your country.”

Henderson wants Stuart Pearce to stay on as manager.

Pearce spoke of his desire to stay on as under-21s boss before the opening game.

Whether the Football Association extends his contract past the end of the month remains to be seen and, despite overseeing group exits in successive tournaments, Henderson hopes he stays on.

“Of course I want Pearce to stay,” the Young Lions skipper said. “He has been a brilliant manager since I’ve come into the 21s. Obviously you can see his record – we got to the final a few tournaments ago and lost to a good team in Germany.

“He has been brilliant with all of us so I would love to see him stay on.”

Despite such backing, Pearce is odds on with the bookmakers to leave the U21s post.

It is no real surprise given England failed so miserably in a group many had expected them to qualify from.

“I can’t believe it,” Henderson said. “There was high hopes going into the tournament.

“It is very disappointing and all the lads were devastated in the dressing room, but I think we battled and kept on going to the end.

“I am not sure why things have gone wrong. I think the Italy game was really bad. We didn’t play well at all and got beat, which was really disappointing.

“I thought we played better against Norway, to be honest. I think we dominated the game, dominated possession of the ball but we have conceded very bad goals as well so we can’t believe it, really.”

Amongst the many reasons for the Under-21s’ failure is the fact key eligible players were unavailable to Pearce.

Instead of travelling to Israel, the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck played friendlies for the senior team against Ireland and Brazil.

“If you look at other countries they do bring their best players,” Henderson said. “Obviously we didn’t bring a few that were with the senior team. At the same time, that gives other people an opportunity to come in and show what they can do.

“You can say that but we can’t use that excuse, to be honest. We’ve got one more game left and have to go out with a bang.

“We’ve got to be professional, got to go out there because we’re still playing for England at the end of the day.

“You are still putting that shirt on and you’re playing for pride. That’s what we will be doing for the last game.

“We will be going out there and we will be playing for pride more than anything. We will show that we still do care and it still means the world to us.”

Efforts from Fredrik Semb Berge, Jo Inge Berget and Magnus Eikrem put Norway three goals up at Ha Moshava, before Craig Dawson got a consolation from the penalty spot.

“It’s football. I’ve been involved in football for 25 years,” Pearce said.

“Humiliation isn’t a word I’d use. Big disappointment, that’s for sure. But I’m very proud to do this job and proud to represent my country, as my players are, so they’ll be hurting. It’s the nature of football. I thought we started very well and passed well without hurting Norway and that got us into the mentality that we just needed to pass the ball without switching on to the defensive side.”