Townsend steals limelight from Tottenham team mate Kane

LONDON (Reuters) - Andros Townsend stole the limelight from his Tottenham Hotspur team mate and man of the moment Harry Kane with a thunderous strike that gave England a 1-1 draw in a friendly with Italy on Tuesday. Townsend joined the action after 70 minutes and scored with a superb shot from outside the area nine minutes later as England stretched their unbeaten run since their dismal performance in the World Cup finals last year to eight matches. Townsend missed the World Cup and England's 2-1 defeat to Italy in Manaus last June through injury, but manager Roy Hodgson has kept faith with the winger who rewarded him with his third goal in his seventh international. "That is the second time he has come on and done something a bit special and he means a lot to us," Hodgson told ITV. "To come to Italy, even in a friendly game and take the game to them as we did in the second half is not an easy thing to do and we are indebted to Andros whose goal got us the draw, but we did have chances before his goal." Townsend told ITV that he thought England might have won the game after his goal, having spurned two or three chances, but a draw was a good result. He also said it meant a lot on a personal level after missing the World Cup in Brazil. "Don't remind me of that, it was a nightmare not to be there, but today I was on the pitch and got the goal," he said. Townsend was one of four Tottenham players on the pitch at the end of the game with Kyle Walker and Ryan Mason joining him as second-half substitutes. The fourth Spurs player, Kane, made his first start for England after coming on as a substitute against Lithuania last Friday and scoring after 79 seconds. He could not find the net again, but like most of the England side had a better second half after a poor opening period. Hodgson was not happy with the way England played in the first 45 minutes and was unimpressed by Italy too. "I thought the atmosphere was dead and both teams were guilty of falling into a practice match atmosphere," he said. "But in the second half we got back to the very high standards we have been setting ourselves and I think that if any team was going to win the game, it was going to be us." (Reporting by Mike Collett; editing by Toby Davis)