England

3-0

Holland

Thurgood 26

 

 

Elding 30

 

 

Hatch 88

National Game XI Friendly
Woking FC
16 February 2005

Paul Fairclough's England National Game XI registered an impressive 3-0 win over Holland in front of a noisy crowd of 3,343 at Woking FC.

England started off in much the better form and, in front of the watching FA Chairman and Chief Executive, controlled possession and started to create chances from early on.

The first goal of the game came after a good move down the England right flank. The ball eventually found Dean Sinclair and he knocked the ball in to the path of Stuart Thurgood of Grays Athletic, who made no mistake from eight yards out.

England's calmness on the ball was exemplary and they doubled their lead just four minutes later with a well-worked, training ground set-piece. From a free-kick, Sinclair fed Karl Hawley and from the byline he rolled the ball back for Anthony Elding to hit home from close range.

The Stevenage Borough man finished the chance with aplomb and the goal triggered scenes of jubilation on the England bench, no doubt all of them delighted at havingseen some hard work on the training ground pay off so handsomely.

Half-time saw the time-honoured non-League football tradition of fans changing ends in order to support their side as England continued to play well at the Kingfield Stadium.

England continued to dominate proceedings in the second period, creating chance after chance. However, unlike in the first half, they lacked the composure in the final third which would have seen them score a third and decisive goal.

That only arrived when Liam Hatch, who had been on as a substitute for Hawley for only six minutes, delighted the fans when he rounded off an excellent left-wing move with an authoritative strike two minutes from time.

Among those in the watching were Exeter City manager Alex Inglethorpe, watching his FA Cup Player of the Round winner Dean Moxey in action, and Yeovil Town boss Gary Johnson, a regular attendee of National Game XI matches.

After the match, a clearly delighted Fairclough said: "This is the best performance from my side since we won the Four Nations Tournament two years ago.

"There were a lot of very, very good performances out there and even though the Dutch got men behind the ball in the second half, we fully deserved our win.

"Some of these players have a bright future ahead of them."