The England C team was formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team (initially under the management of Howard Wilkinson) and for over 35 years has provided players from outside the Football League with the opportunity to pull on the national team shirt, belt out the anthem and get a taste of what it is like to travel the world and represent your country.
Looking back over the team’s results over the past decade, the names of goalscorers such as Steve Morison, Andre Gray and George Boyd jump out, just three of the players to have represented England at this level before going to have very good professional careers (and play internationally for Scotland in Boyd’s case!)
Restructing and financial cutbacks at the Football Association recently threatened the existence of the team but a solution was found and Paul Fairclough, manager of the team since 2003, is currently guiding his charges through the International Challenge Trophy tournament.
England started with a win in Kiev in March against Ukraine and they return home on Sunday 5 June to take on Slovakia Under-21’s.
Fairclough’s 16-man squad includes Omar Bogle, scorer of the two goals that saw Grimsby Town promoted at Wembley recently and Woking midfielder John Goddard who will be joining Swindon Town this summer.
The game, which kicks-off at 2pm, will take place at the Gander Green Lane home of National League newcomers Sutton United and will have free admission for anyone who wishes to attend.
No comments:
Post a Comment