Report on England Game

This edited report of last night's International comes from Non-League Daily. It was written by Steve Whitney.

The opening 20 and the final 10 minutes of the European Challenge Trophy match between England's National Game XI and Italy was pretty good and entertaining stuff. The hour or so in between was, however, very dour fare in front of an excellent crowd at Cambridge United's Abbey Stadium on Wednesday night.

England's stars on the night were undoubtedly York City's young striker Andy Bishop and Accrington Stanley midfielder Ian Craney, and the player most of the scouts, including the likes of Luton's Mike Newell and ex-Wales skipper Kevin Ratcliffe, had come to watch, Stevenage Borough's George Boyd, flitted in an out of the game. But Woking keeper Shwan Jalal had a night he'll not want to remember!

It was the exciting winger who had England's first chance in the 5th minute but after cutting in from the left he shot straight at Italian keeper Davide Bassi.

However, England fans didn't have to wait long for the opening goal to come as just 2 minutes later Bishop raced onto a terrific defence-splitting pass from skipper David Perkins and slipped the ball past the on-rushing Bassi.

It was 10 minutes before Italy had their first shot on goal, but Carlo Emanuele Ferrario shot straight at Jalal.

On 15 minutes Paul Fairclough's side should have gone further ahead when a mix up in the visiting defence left Bishop in the clear but this time he shot wide as Bassi approached.

A couple of minutes later Boyd showed a glimpse of why he is so sought after when a great run and cross found Southport's Carl Baker at the far post and unmarked, but he shot disappointingly wide.

On 20 minutes England's best move of the game involving five players finished with Bishop's shot being saved by Bassi and a couple of minutes later Jalal had to save at Marco Parolo's feet after the Italian skipper had beaten the offside trap and a hesitant England defence.

Baker became the first player to receive a yellow card after 23 minutes for a foul on Michele Santoni and 12 minutes later, somewhat against the run of play, Italy equalised and it was a complete disaster for Jalal.

Ferrario saw his options in front of him limited so he struck a hopeful shot that the Cards' number one somehow let through his arms and turned in horror to see the ball trickle into the net.

Baker had become something of a marked man because of his own sometimes over zealous challenges and it came as little surprise when Italy's Ciro Oreste Sirignano followed him into the book 5 minutes before the break.

Italy began the second half with three substitutes, whilst England took off Baker and replaced him with Dagenham & Redbridge's Craig Mackail-Smith.

I don't quite know what to say about the first half-hour of the second period apsrt from a flurry of substitutions and a dreadful mistake by Hereford United defender Tamika Mkandawire in the 71st minute that should have led to Italy taking the lead, but Ferrario couldn't make the most of the opportunity and shot wide of Jalal?s goal.

The game, although short on goalmouth incident at this time, wasn't short on tackles and the Italians were becoming more and more frustrated at what they thought was lenient refereeing and this led to bookings for defender Francesco Battaglia - their best player on the night - and then Sirignano 10 minutes from time for pulling back Craney.

That led to something of a free-for-all, but it also seemed to wake up the home side as just over a minute later England took the lead when a Boyd corner picked out Morecambe defender Chris Blackburn, who had sneaked up unmarked at the far post, and he buried a shot past Bassi.

Then, just before the end, England left the best 'till last when a terrific piece of play by Boyd left Accrington Stanley's Gary Roberts clear and he crossed brilliantly for fellow substitute Mackail-Smith to net.

Stoppage time saw Italian tackling become a little fiercer and Bishop had to be substituted otherwise he could well have been sent-off after reacting to several poor challenges.

Team:

Shwan Jalal (Woking); Chris Blackburn (Morecambe), David Perkins (Morecambe), Tamika Mkandawire (Hereford Utd), Kieran Charnock (Northwich V), George Boyd (Stevenage B), Ian Craney (Accrington Stanley), Michael Carr (Northwich V), Jon Shaw (Burton Alb), Andy Bishop (York C)

Subs used: Paul Jones (Exeter City ? for Jalal) , David Bridges (Cambridge Utd for Carr), Ryan Austin (Burton Alb for Bishop), Craig Mackail-Smith (Dagenham & Redbridge for Baker h/t), Gary Roberts (Accrington Stanley for Shaw)

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