'B' International at Reading

The FA can confirm that England will play Belarus in a B international friendly at Reading's Madejski Stadium on Thursday 25 May.

Kick-off is at 8.05pm and the match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. Tickets are priced at £15 for adults and £7.50 for under-16s.

The game is likely to feature members of the England World Cup squad who will not necessarily be in the starting XI for the Old Trafford friendlies against Hungary on 30 May and Jamaica on 3 June.

England have never played Belarus at senior level before.

England "B" matches have been seen as stepping stones to the senior team since they were introduced by Walter Winterbottom back in 1949.

England won the first match at that level 4-0 in Finland and three days later, on the same tour, we achieved another victory by the same scoreline in Holland.

There have been 53 "B" internationals to date and England's record reads: W37 D8 L8.

There was a long period without "B" matches after England's 4-1 win over Scotland in Birmingham in 1957. They were re-introduced at the request of Ron Greenwood, recently appointed as senior team manager, in 1978.

In that year there were one-off friendlies in West Germany and Czechoslovakia before a five-match "B" tour to New Zealand and the Far East.

England notched 20 goals on tour and players who pressed their claims to be included in Greenwood's senior side included Joe Corrigan, Viv Anderson, Alan Kennedy, Brian Talbot and Paul Mariner.

The New Zealanders came to Leyton Orient for a return friendly against a "B" team managed by Bobby Robson a year later and a young Glenn Hoddle did well enough to secure an England senior debut in the following month.

The pattern continued of good young players impressing in "B" matches and swiftly becoming established in the senior team.

On a great night at Brighton & Hove Albion's former Goldstone ground in 1989, with 18,000 packed inside and many more locked out, Paul Gascoigne strutted his stuff against his Italy "B" counterparts.

Within seven or eight months "Gazza" had wowed us all with his performances during the World Cup. Graham Taylor was keen on "B" internationals, arranging eight of them, and there were a couple under Terry Venables.

England's last match at "B" level was played at Loftus Road, home of QPR, on 21 April 1998, when Russia provided the opposition. It was two months before the World Cup in France and Glenn Hoddle was under pressure to include the maverick Matt Le Tissier in his squad for the tournament.

The Southampton midfielder gave him food for thought with a well-taken hat-trick against the Russians; he also hit the post twice. Les Ferdinand, captain on the night, scored the other goal in a 4-1 win for England.

Le Tissier didn't make the squad but Darren Anderton, also in that "B" team after an injury-ravaged couple of years, did. He went on to net against Colombia in the Finals.

Terms & Conditions of The Football Association