Both Mark Kinsella and Tony Bedeau pressed their claims for a first-team call-up in last night’s reserve game against Sheffield Wednesday. Bedeau got the Saddlers’ goal at Hillsborough before the home side came back to win it.

Meanwhile over 8,500 were at Bescot to see the England under 19 international against Holland.

Thanks to Warsawpact on the MB for the report.

The first half was pretty poor. England only created 1 chance - a cross from the left and a header back across the goal which went wide of the post. Other than that, there was no creativity from the left, nor from the centre, and just a bit of possession on the right which didn’t amount to much. Holland looked more comfortable on the ball, and created more - hitting the post with one cross-shot.

The second half was better, more penetration and more chances. There was a tasty challenge on the touchline, when one of the Dutch players got put into the Holland dugout (if you’re going to commit a foul, you may as well try to crock some of the substitutes too!) Ish came on with about 15 minutes to go, to a big cheer.

He didn’t touch the ball for the first 5 mins, then won the ball in the England half, skipped through a few challenges, then under-hit a pass back to one of the defenders - which nearly set up a goal for Holland. He then had two runs down the left - the second time beating about 4 defenders before making a good cross-field pass to the right, where England mucked it up and lost possession. He also gave away a couple of free-kicks on the left, but didn’t seem to get involved in any ‘afters’.

On the whole, I was rather disappointed in England, especially in the first half. The defenders got caught in possession on occasion, midfield seemed incapable of creating space for themselves, and the strikers weren’t able to get free of their markers. Even at this level, you can see that the Dutch players are more comfortable on the ball.

I’m biased of course, but Ish seemed the only English player with the skill and (more importantly) the confidence to take the Dutch on with the ball at his feet. Maybe this comes from his first team experience, which many of the players at Premiership clubs probably don’t have yet.

The only other England players that made much of an impression on me was Michael Mancienne (Chelsea centre-back) and Craig Lindfield - a tall black centre-forward at Liverpool.

For the rest, this was a poor show from the players at the Premiership clubs, who possibly need first team experience in the lower reaches in order to sharpen them up. On that showing, I wouldn’t swap Ish for any of them.