England U21 boss Stuart Pearce was forced to play Peterborough United goalkeeper Joe Lewis as a striker in last night's 7-0 friendly win against Azerbaijan.

With six of his European Championship squad rested or unavailable, Pearce only had four outfield substitutes and had already used them before Lee Cattermole picked up a slight calf problem.

Pearce did not want to disrespect his opponents by playing with 10 men at stadium:mk and his solution was to bring on Peterborough goalkeeper Lewis.

It was a similar story in 2005 when he told David James to play in attack against Middlesbrough - but on this occasion it was a "forced" move.

"We had to do that because Cat's pulled a slight injury and with the tournament a week away we were at a loss as what to do," Pearce said.

"We used all our outfield subs and Joe put himself forward to go up front. It was a forced sub. Whichever way we did it we didn't want to be seen as disrespectful. That was the last thing I wanted."

Michael Mancienne's early strike, an own goal by goalkeeper Elchin Sadigov and a cool finish from Craig Gardner established a half-time lead at MK Dons' ground.

Nodar Mammadov then diverted into his own net after the break and Kieran Gibbs added another two before Lewis came on.

"He thought it was a doddle up there, he thought he ran more than Fraizer Campbell but we'll show him the video," Pearce added.

Jack Rodwell added the seventh with a deflected effort in stoppage-time.

"As a manager you can't ask for more than that," Pearce said. "Apart from a couple of niggles we've got through pretty much unscathed."