LLOYD Kelly insists suffering disappointing with England's under-21s earlier this year "will help build you as a player".

Cherries defender Kelly was part of a talented Young Lions squad, which headed to Slovenia to compete in the European Under-21 Championship in March.

Premier League stars Emile Smith Rowe, Dwight McNeil, Curtis Jones, Ben Godfrey, Eberechi Eze and Eddie Nketiah were among those involved, as well as goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who has this week joined up with the senior England squad for Euro 2020.

The tournament was split into two stages due to scheduling issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

All group stage matches for the finals took place in March, before the knockout rounds over the summer.

Kelly would have hoped to have been away with England this month competing in the Ljubljana final, which was won by Germany, who edged past Portugal.

However, England did not even make it past the group stage, a stat which ultimately cost Aidy Boothroyd his job as boss.

England were beaten 1-0 by Switzerland, before falling to a 2-0 loss against Portugal.

They rounded off their group campaign by beating Croatia 2-1, but that was not enough to avoid finishing bottom of the pile. England led 2-0, knowing a clean sheet would send them through, but they conceded in stoppage time.

Kelly played the full 90 minutes against Switzerland and Croatia in Koper, watching on from the bench for the Portugal match.

And he hopes to use the setback of another early tournament exit with England as fuel for the rest of his career.

"I think it was a disappointing tournament for everyone involved," Kelly told the Daily Echo.

"We knew the squad we had and the ability we had, but that’s tournament football for you.

"Games are won by fine margins. And obviously late on in the game in the last game, where we needed to keep that clean sheet, that pretty much summed it up really. So of course everyone was disappointed."

Asked how much he can learn from that experience of late heartbreak against Croatia, Kelly added: "Yeah, 100 per cent. Those experiences will help build you as a player and obviously your character as well.

"No-one wants to go into a tournament and not get past the group stages.

"I think everyone involved will use that as a bit of a learning curve and push on from there."