It was not the result Aidy Boothroyd wanted but evenings like this will do the England manager’s young players no harm in the long term. The bigger picture is this summer’s European Championship finals in Italy and San Marino, where England will need to be more ruthless in front of goal when they come up against opponents in the same mould as Poland if they harbour genuine hopes of bringing home silverware.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s early strike should have provided England with the platform to go on and win a game in which they were the far more accomplished side for long periods, but they never quite managed to turn their neat approach play into the hard currency of goals and were ultimately undone by a brilliant set piece at the other end.

Sebastian Szymanski’s perfectly executed free-kick shortly after the half-hour mark pegged England back just at a time when they were playing with freedom and looked to be enjoying themselves. Although England recovered from the setback and continued to control possession – the effervescent Phil Foden was often at the centre of their more promising attacks – that killer final pass, or pinpoint cross, was missing.

Boothroyd named an experimental lineup here and has plenty of other talented players to bring back into the fold, either against Germany in Bournemouth on Tuesday or at the finals in June, so solutions should not be difficult to find. That probably explains why the England manager was not too worried by the scoreline.

“I thought it was really satisfying because the games against Poland and Germany were always going to be more difficult than what we’ve had,” Boothroyd said. “Their coach said to me at the end: ‘Thanks for the defensive workout.’” It was up to us to break them down. Although I thought we played some fantastic stuff, the final ball was not quite right tonight but that happens, especially when you’ve not been together for four months.”

A free-flowing and entertaining game was played in front of more than 25,000 spectators, including a sizeable contingent of Poland fans. Stationed behind the goal where Szymanski scored, they had a perfect view of his 30-yard free-kick as it curled into the top corner. Boothroyd was far from impressed, not least because the England goalkeeper Angus Gunn decided against having a wall. “I was really surprised [by that],” Boothroyd said. “It was almost a free shot on goal. I was very disappointed but it’s one of those things we can put right straight away.”

That goal cancelled out Calvert-Lewin’s opener, which was tapped home from inside the six-yard box following a lovely piece of play from Reiss Nelson, who glided round the Poland goalkeeper before intelligently cutting the ball back. Nelson then squandered a chance to double England’s lead and the Everton defender Jonjoe Kenny twice came close to scoring, first with a superb 25-yard half-volley that was turned behind and later with a deflected effort that was pushed on to a post.