England will take on Serbia and Montenegro, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in a mini-tournament which will see one side make it through to the finals in Italy.

In each of the last four seasons, England have reached the Semi Finals of the competition and coach Peacock believes the squad he has selected is good enough to challenge the strong opposition his side will face.

"I'm happy with it - it's a strong squad with some really good players who I am looking forward to seeing in action.

"Obviously it was difficult selecting the 18 names on the list as throughout this season I have been selecting new players for virtually every game, so I had plenty to choose from.

"The three sides we are up against all have great quality and it will be a really good test for my boys to see how they do. It is important for us to qualify and I hope that with home advantage we can do it."

After an ultimately disappointing Algarve Tournament, Peacock will be pleased with the return to the squad of Chelsea's Michael Mancienne, who captained the side in the Pepsi Tournament, which England won undefeated.

Upfront, England will be hoping that Joe Garner and Hogan Ephraim (below) can carry on their superb goalscoring form, the two strikers having registered ten goals so far this season.

"I'm blessed with good forward players and Hogan is one of them," says Peacock. "He has got lots of potential and is someone we'll be hoping can get us a few goals."

There is one new call-up among the squad, with Everton's James Vaughan, who has not been awarded an England cap at any level, winning a place in the final 18.

As England are ranked as Europe's top side in UEFA's seeding system, Peacock's side received a bye into this, the final stage of European Championship Qualifying.

The six matches in the group will be held over five days in the Midlands with Stoke City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Walsall hosting the England matches.

The matches in Elite Round Qualifying, Group 2 start on 26 March and will be covered extensively here on TheFA.com.

England U17 Squad, European Championship Qualifiers, March 2005

Player

Club

Caps*

Goals

David Button

Tottenham Hotspur

5

0

Mark Davies

Wolverhampton Wdrs

15

3

Hogan Ephraim

West Ham United

11

6

Joe Garner

Blackburn Rovers

7

4

Scott Golbourne

Bristol City

11

1

Andrew Gooding

Coventry City

8

1

Sebastian Hines

Middlesbrough

8

1

Zac Jones

Blackburn Rovers

6

0

Darryl Knights

Ipswich Town

7

0

Michael Mancienne

Chelsea

3

0

Lewis McGugan

Nottingham Forest

8

1

Leigh Mills

Tottenham Hotspur

7

0

Fabrice Muamba

Arsenal

8

0

Elliot Omozusi

Fulham

9

0

Scott Phelan

Everton

6

0

James Vaughan

Everton

0

0

Theo Walcott

Southampton

7

3

Myles Weston

Charlton Athletic

10

2

Statistics refer to England Under-17 caps/goals only