England Under-21 midfielder Mark Noble was thrilled with tonight's 2-1 win over Finland in their European Championship opener - even if it was not the prettiest.

Stuart Pearce's side overcame the first-half dismissal of Michael Mancienne to begin their Group B campaign with a victory in Halmstad and can now look forward to Thursday's clash with Spain full of optimism.

"We're delighted. We've got our three points on the board; no matter how we've done it, we've done it," the West Ham man told Sky Sports 1.

"I'm sure nobody's going to care we weren't playing 'Barcelona football' tonight. We won the game - that's all that matters.

"It's tournament football. So long as we win and get the three points on the board... We've got a tough game against Spain on Thursday and we're looking forward to it."

Lee Cattermole opened the scoring at the Orjans Vall but the underdogs levelled from the penalty spot after Mancienne had brought down Berat Sadik.

The Chelsea defender was sent off for that challenge, leaving England to play the second half a man down.

But Pearce's side made light of their man disadvantage after the interval as Micah Richards headed home the winner.

Noble felt the conditions did not help England tonight.

"The last two weeks we've been playing on fast pitches, zinging the ball about for fun," he said. "Today we got here and the pitch was dry, it was really hot - it suited them better than us.