England C (ICT) The History/Last Campaign

By Sam Heaney

England have been the runners up in the previous two International Challenge Trophy tournaments, just behind Belgium and then Portugal.
In the last campaign (2010/11) There were 3 groups in which Italy finished at the top of Group 1, England at the top of Group 2 and Portugal top of Group 3.
These 3 teams then advanced to the Semi-Finals. Due to there being only 3 teams advancing, Belgium, second placed in group 1, also advanced because they had the joint third best record after the group stages.
The Semi-Final fixtures were as following: England v Belgium and Italy v Portugal.
The England tie was played at Luton
The Italy game was played at Trapani - Ilha de Sicilia. It proved to be an exciting game as Italy went 2-0 up in the first 15 minutes but Portugal managed to complete their comeback in extra time thanks to a Carlos Saleiro goal on the 114^th minute to make it 3-2.

The final of the ICT was played in Northampton with England being the home side. It was a thrilling encounter between the 2 sides, the away team just having the upper hand, eventually a second half goal from Portugal, their 13^th of the tournament, gifted them the ICT trophy with their 1-0 win.
There have been plenty of players that have stepped up into higher leagues after playing for England C team such as; David Stockdale currently in the Premier League with Fulham, D.J Campbell now at QPR, again, in the premier league as well as Craig Mackail-Smith of Brighton & Hove Albion in the Championship.’s Kenilworth Road Stadium which saw England run out as 1-0 winners putting them through to the final.