JACK BUTLAND will be England's first-choice goalkeeper at this summer's European Under-21 Championships, but Stuart Pearce is confident Middlesbrough's Jason Steele will prove an able deputy if required.

Steele was one of two North-East based players named in the 23-man squad that was announced yesterday, with Sunderland striker Connor Wickham also getting the nod for next month's tournament in Israel.

Pearce has also selected Sunderland-born Jordan Henderson as his skipper, as well as Danny Rose, who has spent this season on loan with the Black Cats, and Josh McEachran, who has recently returned to Chelsea after a nine-month loan spell with Middlesbrough.

Steele was Butland's deputy in the Team GB squad for last summer's Olympics, and the Newton Aycliffe-born shot-stopper is set to be number two to the Stoke goalkeeper for the second major tournament in succession.

However, Pearce has been happy with Steele's development in the last couple of years, and would have no qualms about turning to the 22-year-old if Butland was to suffer a mishap.

"The mainstay has been Butland, although he's spent a lot of his time going up and coming down from the seniors," said the England boss. "That has enabled the likes of Steele and (Declan) Rudd to get experience at Under-21 level and that's important."

Rose is expected to start at left-back in England's group matches against Italy, Norway and Israel after impressing during his season-long loan at the Stadium of Light.

"Danny has had a sensational season for both club and country," said Pearce, who will be keen to improve on England's showing at the last European Championships in Denmark two years ago, when they failed to progress beyond the group stage.

Wickham is one of only two out-and-out strikers named in the squad - Bolton's Marvin Sordell is the other - but in the likes of Wilfried Zaha and Callum McManaman, England boast attacking midfielders who could play up front.

The Sunderland striker boasts five goals from his 13 caps at Under-21 level, and has grown increasingly effective after a slow start to life in Pearce's side.

The same is true of McEachran, and while the duo are unlikely to be first-choice starters this summer, Pearce expects them to be linchpins of the Under-21 squad in the next qualifying campaign.

"Connor and Josh have found their feet," he said. "Because they are probably the younger element of the squad, it's taken them a little while."They've been around the squad for a while now, and all of a sudden we are seeing them become men in the group. Both this summer and beyond that, they should be carrying the Under-21s."

Henderson skippered England throughout their successful qualifying campaign, where they won nine of their ten matches, and the Liverpool midfielder is determined to improve on 2011's disappointing campaign in Denmark.

"I think we maybe didn't do as well as we thought," he said. "We had a really good team, a lot of quality, and we had a real belief that we were going to win the competition."It just wasn't our year. I don't think we did anything wrong, but in an attacking sense we could have been a little bit better in getting a few more goals."

Last summer, Henderson was a late call-up to the England senior squad that reached the quarter-finals of the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, and the 22-year-old feels the experience will stand him in good stead when he leads the Under-21s into action in their opening group game against Italy on June 5.

"That was another brilliant experience for me," he said. "It was great to go into the senior squad and to a big tournament like that. I managed to play a part, so I learned a lot from the trip."

England Under-21 squad:

Butland (Stoke), Steele (Middlesbrough), Rudd (Norwich); Caulker (Tottenham), Clyne (Southampton), Dawson (West Brom), Lees (Leeds), Rose (Tottenham), Shaw (Southampton), Smith (Tottenham), Wisdom (Liverpool); Chalobah (Chelsea), Henderson (Liverpool), Ince (Blackpool), Lansbury (Nottingham Forest), Lowe (Blackburn), McEachran (Chelsea), McManaman (Wigan), Shelvey (Liverpool), Townsend (Tottenham); Zaha (Man United), Sordell (Bolton), Wickham (Sunderland).