England national association football B team

England B is a secondary football team run occasionally as support for the England national football team. At times they have played other nations' full teams; they have also played matches against 'B' teams from other football associations. Since the team's first use in 1947, there have been 54 official and 3 unofficial B team matches. It has been inactive since May 2007. History Walter Winterbottom first proposed B team matches as a way of bringing players through into the national side (the Under 21 team, the current stepping stone to the national team, did not exist until 1976.). He organised the first recorded game held under the name of 'England B', which was played in Geneva on 21 February 1947 against Switzerland B team. The match finished 0–0. The games proved useful as an introduction to the national team and the first official England B team game came in 1949 in a 4–0 victory over Finland. The frequency of the games depends almost entirely upon the head coach of the England squad. For example, there were no B team internationals under Sir Alf Ramsey or Don Revie; indeed there were none between 1957 and 1978. Ron Greenwood reintroduced them and Bobby Robson used them regularly – there were nine B team internationals in 1989 and 1990. This period saw the likes of Paul Gascoigne enter the England team via the B squad. Graham Taylor continued Robson's practice of holding regular B team matches. Terry Venables held two in 1994, but a four-year hiatus followed. Glenn Hoddle also arranged two B team matches, as part of his build up to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, with a further gap until 2006. Both Sven-Göran Eriksson and Steve McClaren arranged just one B team match each during their periods as England manager, Eriksson's match was held on 25 May 2006 against Belarus as a World Cup warm-up game. England lost 2–1, with a goal from Jermaine Jenas. Steve McClaren's only match with the B team was against the Albania full side on 25 May 2007 at Burnley's Turf Moor ground, which they won 3–1, as preparation for England's Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia on 6 June 2007. The squad included a recovering Michael Owen, who captained the side, as well as seven uncapped players, five of whom have since gone on to receive full international caps. There have been no B team matches since May 2007.