Last night England C took on Wales C at the rain-swept J Davidson Stadium, (Moss Lane to most of us) the home of National League side Altrincham FC.
Barnet's England Cyan De Havilland scored the only goal as England C beat their Wales counterparts 1-0.
The match attendance was 840 and tickets were reasonably priced at £7 for adults and £2 for kids.
One fan who attended the game was Ben Cliff a follower of non-league side Kidsgrove Athletic, Ben said;
“The game wasn't the best, but no doubt the wet and windy weather conditions didn't help."
Ben kindly sent us a few pictures of Atly's impressive stadium.
The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at the non-league level.
Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it features players who play for clubs outside the Premier League and English Football League. Currently, the majority of selected players are full-time professionals with National League clubs.
Home matches are played at various League and non-league grounds around the country. Friendly matches are played with equivalent teams from other nations, and between 1979 and 2008, competed in the Four Nations Tournament each season, along with Scotland, Wales, and the full Gibraltar teams. In the tournament in 1980, held in Veenendaal, the opposition was Scotland (players outside the Premier Division, notably Ally McCoist, then playing for St Johnstone).
Netherlands Amateurs and Italy under-21. They have more recently begun playing against under-23 teams from the likes of Belgium and Turkey which have included players capped at the full international level.
They won the Four Nations tournament for the seventh time in May 2008, winning all three of their matches without conceding a goal. Since January 2003, the team has been managed by Paul Fairclough, who used to manage Barnet until he left the club by mutual consent in December 2008.
The squad for the England C v Wales C match picked by manager Paul Fairclough was packed with the finest talent from the National League.
Some critics say that having an England C team is not justified but in recent years with an improvement in the quality of their opponents and several success stories, it has been the foundation for EFL clubs looking for the next big talent to emerge from non-League football.
Since 2003, the likes of Andre Gray, Sam Clucas, George Boyd and Lee Tomlin have all used it as a platform to reach the Premier League.
Barnsley‘s James Norwood who has won a few caps for England C said they were perceived as irrelevant and the response is impassioned.
He laughed: “It’s no gimmick at all. It’s true it took time for the stigma to wear off."
"When I played we were chuffed to get the new kit, rather than fake stuff, before any of the other England age groups.
“But the truth is that England C has been feeding the Football League for years".
“At least 75 per cent of the lads I played with are now in the EFL - it’s their breeding ground.”
“In the past, when clubs were looking for the next big talent they never looked in the Conference.”
"They never saw the value, just a load of ex-pros and young kids."
“Now, they take chances on players every summer and every January to see if they could find a diamond".
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