I have the utmost respect for Alex Welsh - he is a friend of mine and a really excellent coach educator.

One thing he once said to me was 'fail to prepare, prepare to fail' and that has been at the forefront of my mind as the elite disability teams prepare for their pending championships over the summer months.

In my last article I highlighted the Paralympic squads and what they have ahead moving into the games in September.

For this column I would like to concentrate on the England Learning Disability squad and the European Championships which is being held in this country in July and August.

The squad is in transition following the unsuccessful bid to defend their World Cup in Germany after being beaten by eventual winners, Saudi Arabia, in the quarter finals.

The LD team have been the most successful squad in past years playing in three major finals. Lyndon Lynch has stepped down as manager to be replaced by Alan Gillett. He has a wealth of experience in Africa and around the world preparing teams for major mainstream competition and I believe can develop the new crop of players.

The European Championships are being held in Greater Manchester, utilising venues like Sports City who host the opening game on 20 July, to Hyde Utd, Stalybridge Celtic with the Final being held at Oldham Athletic on 2 August. I will give you news on how you can obtain tickets for games.

To launch the championships England are to play a friendly at Curzon Ashton on Sunday 27 April against current European champions Holland, with the game kicking off at 1pm.

Throughout the past six years both teams have been ranked either one or two in the world, and I wanted to give you a brief history of this rivalry.

In 1998 at the opening game of the INAS FID World Cup at Leicester City, England beat Holland 2-1 in front of 21,000 spectators - this was the first time the Three Lions had defeated the Dutch. Unfortunately they lost in the quarter finals to Germany on penalties.

The next competitive match was in the Semi-Final of the European Championship in 2001 in Poland. England lost 3-0 in Lyndon's first tournament in charge.

During this time we both felt we needed to identify new players if we were to challenge the rest of the world. This saw us embark on trials up and down England, watching recommended players and trying to develop a squad that could challenge for the World Cup to be held in Japan in 2002.

We knew we had to develop a tournament winning squad when we played Holland and in May that year, at Bristol City, beat them 4–2 to lay down a marker for the coming event.

The INAS FID World Championships took place in Japan, one month after the mainstream event.

England topped the group, scoring 33 goals and conceding just one. After wins against Portugal (1-0) and Russia (8-0), we once again had to defeat the Dutch to lift the trophy.

Playing at the Yokohama International Stadium, where Brazil had beaten Germany 2-0, England took an early lead in front of 26,000 spectators from a worked set-piece.

Holland had the best of the first half but could not make their dominance pay with England defending well under pressure, Bradley Brotherton immense at the centre of the defence.

The second half saw England play much better and in the 85th minute captain Paul Walters scored with a diving header from Rudi Hall’s pin-point cross to make it 2-0. Holland scored late in the game but England were crowned World Champions.

The teams met again in the following year in the final of the 2003 Europeans, this time Holland won 2-1 to retain their title.

Unfortunately for Holland they also had the heartbreak of losing another World Cup final in 2006 when they lost to Saudi Arabia on penalties.

So to the game in April. Both teams have new young players, new staff and a desire to do well.

I am currently working with Alan on the programme leading to the Learning Disability Championship in July to ensure we try to it. We were World Champions because everything went right for us. We prepared really well and had people like Sam Erith, Sports Scientist (now at Tottenham) and Dr Brian Aarons (ex-Wimbledon doctor) looking after the players.

If we can replicate this for July who knows?