Pearce's warning for Midland pair

Despite being regarded as two of the hottest talents in the country, Wolves defender Mancienne and Villa midfielder Delph currently find themselves out of their clubs' first-choice XIs.

Mancienne - who is on a season-long loan from Chelsea - has lost his place to in-form veteran Jody Craddock at Molineux, while at Villa £6million signing Delph finds himself behind established top-flight trio Stiliyan Petrov, Steve Sidwell and Nigel Reo-Coker.

Pearce, whose young England lions travel to Lithuania for their Euro qualifier later today, admits it is a concern to see his players on the periphery.

He said: "The more matches these boys play the better. There were a few out there on Saturday against Portugal not playing regularly for their clubs.

"There's no substitute for playing regularly week in, week out. The game on Saturday will have benefited them greatly and I'd expect them to be sharper today."

Pearce believes Delph will benefit greatly in the long term from being surrounded by Premier League quality players on a daily basis, after swapping League One Leeds for the Villans in the summer.

The coach said: "I think training with better players will certainly help him. I think playing under-21 matches for England will help him grow as a player."

England's young Lions kept on course for a place in the 2011 European Championships with a 1-0 win over Portugal at Wembley on Saturday.

Pearce's men are second in Group Nine, three points behind leaders Greece, holding a match in hand, with the eventual winners and four best-runners up automatically qualifying for the finals in Denmark.

He said: "The resilience of the team was the most important thing to come out of Saturday. In recent games, we have shipped goals cheaply. The performance was a real major stepping stone."