England shit team

Nickname(s)	The Three Lions
Association	The Football Association
Head coach	Fabio Capello
Home stadium	N/A
First colours Second colours
First international
Switzerland B 0 - 0 England B (Geneva, Switzerland; 21 February 1947)
Biggest win
Singapore 0 - 8 England B (Singapore City, Singapore; 18 June 1978)
Biggest defeat
France Espoirs 7 - 1 England B (Le Havre, France; 22 May 1952)

England B is a secondary football team run occasionally as support for the England national football team. At times they have played other nations' full teams; they have also played matches against 'B' teams from other football associations. Since the team's first use in 1947, there have been 54 official^[1] and 3 unofficial^[2] B team matches (as of May 2007).

History

Walter Winterbottom first proposed B team matches as a way of bringing players through into the national side (the Under 21 team, the current stepping stone to the national team, did not exist until 1976.^[3]).^[1] He organised the first recorded game held under the name of 'England B', which was played in Geneva on 21 February 1947 against Switzerland B team.^[2] The match finished 0-0. The games proved useful as an introduction to the national team and the first official England B team game came in 1949 in a 4-0 victory over Finland^[1]

The frequency of the games depends almost entirely upon the head coach of the England squad.^[1] For example, there were no B team internationals under Sir Alf Ramsey or Don Revie; indeed there were none between 1957 and 1978. Ron Greenwood reintroduced them^[1] and Bobby Robson used them regularly - there were nine B team internationals in 1989 and 1990. This period saw the likes of Paul Gascoigne enter the England team via the B squad.^[1]

Sven-Göran Eriksson arranged just one B team match during his time in charge, held on 25 May 2006 against Belarus as a World Cup warm-up game. England lost 2-1, with a goal from Jermaine Jenas. Theo Walcott debuted for England B as the youngest player for them, but as it was a B international, this does not count towards official records, and had to wait until the 3-1 friendly victory against Hungary to break the official record, aged 17 years and 75 days.

Steve McClaren's only match with the B team was against the Albania full side on 25 May 2007 at Burnley's Turf Moor ground, which they won 3-1,^[4] as preparation for England's Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia on 6 June 2007.^[5] The squad included a recovering Michael Owen, who captained the side,^[6] as well as seven uncapped players, five of whom have since gone on to receive full international caps.^[6] Current England head coach, Fabio Capello, has yet to arrange a B team match.

Attendance

Attendances and opponents have varied widely, with some games against first teams (the last of which was in 2007 against Albania), Olympics teams and other B team squads. The most recent game against Albania had an attendance of 22,500 at Turf Moor.^[7] Prior to the two high attendances for the games in 2006 and 2007, the previous time that the B team had played in front of more than 20,000 people was in 1978 in a match in Singapore, against their national team, when 40,000 people attended.^[2]

The highest attendances for England B games were in a series of matches against the Netherlands and Netherlands B in the 1950s, when the Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam saw three matches with an attendance of 60,000.^[2] The highest attendance at home for the B team was 43,068 at St James' Park, Newcastle, again against the Netherlands on 22 February 1950.^[2]

Popularity and use

The games are generally seen as being a way of bringing younger or more inexperienced players into the national team set up, without giving them a full cap.^[8] They may often be held before World Cups or other tournaments to give second choice players, injured players or possible choices an opportunity to have a full game to either keep their fitness or play their way into the first team.^[1]

However, some fans and footballers see the games as slightly pointless, as indicated by the low attendances of the games during the 1980s and 1990s, when as few as 4,000 fans would watch home games. When Chris Sutton was picked for England B before the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he refused to play for the team, claiming that it was a waste of time and that he should have been picked for the first team.^[9] This boycott, however, ended Sutton's chances of ever playing for the full national team again. Furthermore, Matt Le Tissier, who scored a hat-trick for the England B team against Russia B in that match controversially failed to make the 1998 FIFA World Cup squad.^[8] On the other hand, Darren Anderton successfully returned to the first team squad via the B team after recovering from injury in 1998, whilst other players such as Paul Gascoigne have been brought to the full team via the Bs.^[1]

In 2006, the England B team game was seen as being useful for giving a glimpse of potential future England players.^[10] In particular, it proved useful for Aaron Lennon and Peter Crouch to stake their claims for places in the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad.^[10] Furthermore, it provided match practice for Michael Owen and Sol Campbell, who were both returning from injury. Overall, 12 players from the 2006 B team squad^[11] eventually made it to the final World Cup squad.^[12] That said, an injury picked up in the game prevented goalkeeper Robert Green from playing at the World Cup^[13] and of the twelve players in both squads, five were established players with over 25 caps.

Statistics

Recent results

• England B 3 - 1  Albania at Turf Moor, Burnley, 25 May 2007

• England B 1 - 2  Belarus at Madejski Stadium, Reading, Berkshire, 25 May 2006

Historical Statistics

• Highest attendance - 60 000 v Netherlands and Netherlands B (3 times) at Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam
• Highest home attendance - 43 608 v Netherlands at St James' Park, Newcastle, 22 February 1950
• Biggest victory - 8-0 v Singapore, 18 June 1978 at National Stadium, Singapore
• Heaviest defeat - 1-7 v France espoirs, 22 May 1952, Le Havre

Overall match record:

• Played 57, Won 37, Drawn 10, Lost 9, Abandoned 1
  • Versus national teams: P19 W15 D2 L2
  • Versus national B teams: P26 W22 D8 L7 A1
  • Versus others: P2 W1 D0 L1

Fixtures

The England B team currently has no scheduled fixtures.

Most Recent Squad

The most recent England B team squad was selected for a game against Albania on 25 May 2007. The squad, with the players' clubs as on the date of the game, consisted of:

Goalkeepers

Name	DOB	Club On Date Of Match	England B Caps (goals)
Scott Carson	3 September 1985	Liverpool	2 (0)
Robert Green	18 January 1980	West Ham United	1 (0)
Paul Robinson	15 October 1979	Tottenham Hotspur	0 (0)

Defenders

Name	DOB	Club	Caps (goals)
Michael Dawson	18 November 1983	Tottenham Hotspur	2 (0)
Phil Neville	21 January 1977	Everton	1 (0)
Ledley King	12 October 1980	Tottenham Hostpur	1 (0)
Nicky Shorey	19 February 1981	Reading	1 (0)
Phil Jagielka	17 August 1982	Sheffield United	1 (0)
Steven Taylor	23 January 1986	Newcastle United	1 (0)
Joleon Lescott	16 August 1982	Everton	1 (0)

Midfielders

Name	DOB	Club On Date Of Match	Caps (goals)
Stewart Downing	22 July 1984	Middlesbrough	2 (2)
Jermaine Jenas	18 February 1983	Tottenham Hotspur	2 (1)
Aaron Lennon	16 April 1987	Tottenham Hotspur	2 (0)
Owen Hargreaves	20 January 1981	Bayern Munich	1 (0)
Gareth Barry	23 February 1981	Aston Villa	1 (0)
David Bentley	27 August 1984	Blackburn Rovers	1 (0)
Scott Parker	1 October 1980	Newcastle United	0 (0)
Kieron Dyer	29 December 1978	Newcastle United	3 (0)
Matt Taylor	27 November 1981	Portsmouth	1 (0)
Alan Smith	28 October 1980	Manchester United	1 (1)

Strikers

Name	DOB	Club On Date Of Match	Caps (goals)
Michael Owen	14 December 1979	Newcastle United	2 (0)
Jermain Defoe	7 October 1982	Tottenham Hotspur	1 (0)
David Nugent	2 May 1985	Preston North End	0 (0)

References

External links

• Details of all matches up to 1998 on www.rsssf.com