The Football Association are delighted to announce that Paul Fairclough will continue in his role as manager of the England National Game XI.

Fairclough, who is the manager of Barnet, was initially appointed in January 2003 and has managed the team on 23 occasions, winning 13 times. The team is unbeaten in their last 12 outings.

Under his reign, the team has twice been successful in winning the Four Nations Tournament and recently became the winners of the inaugural European Challenge Trophy.

"I have always considered it an honour to manage the National team and I was thrilled to be asked to continue," said Fairclough.

Peter Bentley, Chairman of the FA’s Representative Matches Committee, was delighted that Fairclough was to continue in the job.

"Paul is undoubtedly the best person for the job," he said. "He brings a high level of professionalism and commitment which has been reflected in the results and performance not only of the team but of individual players many of whom have now progressed to careers with Football League clubs."

Bentley added: "We are extremely grateful to Tony Kleanthous, the chairman of Barnet FC, for allowing Paul to continue in this role. It was a difficult decision for the club but we are obviously pleased with the outcome. We have assured the club that there will be no more than two England matches played during the actual playing season save in exceptional circumstances."

FA Chief Executive, Brian Barwick, was also pleased that Fairclough would continue.

"I have been greatly impressed by the standard of the team on the occasions that I have seen them," he said. "I was delighted to be present at Burton Albion last November when the team lifted the European Challenge Trophy and I am confident that the team will continue to be successful under Paul’s leadership."

Attention now turns to February’s friendly International with Northern Ireland.

The match, at Glenavon FC on Tuesday 13 February, will be the first meeting between the two countries at this level. It will be interesting to compare the standards of the two teams, one made up of players in the Carnegie Irish Premier League the other from the Nationwide Conference.