An opportunity to impress
by Glenn Lavery
Wednesday, 01 December, 2010
Kenny Swain will give players chance to exorcise demons from Wales defeat.
Tickets are priced £3 for adults and £1 for concessions
The England U16 team are hoping the snow stays away from Morecambe as they prepare to face Scotland in their second match of this season’s Sky Sports Victory Shield.
With the adverse weather conditions wreaking havoc across the country Kenny Swain’s latest crop of talented youngsters are keen to avoid a second postponement inside a month after their game in Northern Ireland on 4 November was called off due to a waterlogged pitch.
With just a frost falling on The Globe Arena pitch overnight, prospects of the game going ahead look bright and the England Head Coach is looking forward to the chance of putting the defeat to Wales, in October, behind them.
“That came as a bit of a shock,” Swain said of the 4-0 reversal, “but there were positives to take from it. We conceded three goals inside 12 first-half minutes but that can happen to any team. It happens in the Premier League and it happens to fully fledged internationals that are household names. These lads are just schoolboys and it’s all part of the learning process for the future.
“Once we got over that shock, we played well in the second half and were unlucky not to score ourselves. It was a much better performance from us and that was pleasing to see.
“I’m certainly not going to judge those boys on just one performance though. It would be wrong to do so and certainly wouldn’t help in our aim of progressing players through the England age groups.
“We’ve made a few changes to the squad because we’ve got a lot of players to look at in this age group and we’ll make sure that everyone gets an opportunity to show what they can do against Scotland.”
England v Scotland is traditionally the final match of the Victory Shield series, but last month’s postponement put paid to that custom, as the Three Lions’ clash with Northern Ireland has been re-scheduled for Thursday 9 November. However, that has not prevented Swain from anticipating another entertaining encounter against the ‘Auld Enemy’.
“[Scotland Coach] Ross Mathie has been a wonderful friend and foe to me over the years. His teams are always well prepared and our games against them are always great to watch.
“They’ve seen success in their development ranks as well as we have recently with the Under-21s coming close to qualifying for next season’s UEFA European Championship in Denmark. It just goes to show what a great job Ross is doing for youth player development in Scotland, and we are expecting another tough game.”
Anticipation levels are rising in Lancashire as The Globe Arena's main Peter McGuigan Stand has completely sold out.