By Pete Oliver

Fairclough is looking to create history with England

National Game boss Paul Fairclough is confident he can guide England to a rare tournament success when he leads his country into action against Holland on Wednesday night.

England meet the Dutch in the final of the inaugural European Challenge Trophy at Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium.

A point will be enough for England's Under-23 non-league squad to win the four-team tournament, in which they have already defeated Belgium and Italy.

However, defeat would hand the crown to Holland, who draw their players from the lower reaches of the Dutch national league.

Fairclough told BBC Sport: "A lot of hard work has gone into it. It's all come together and now we find ourselves in a position where it's like a cup final.

"It would be a fantastic achievement to do it.

"The players will go down in history and it would be great to think that I could be the manager of a team that is successful in Europe.

"We have not done it since 1966 so it would be great if we could win it."

The Dutch will be something of an unknown quantity to Fairclough, who combines his job as England boss with managing League Two side and 2005 Conference champions Barnet.

"They have changed the way they have approached things and totally restructured. Their two results were not expected, so they will be tough. But I am very confident," he said.

That confidence is based on the quality in a 16-man squad selected from players from 12 Conference top-flight clubs.

I am hoping the tournament will grow and other nations will join in Paul Fairclough

Consistency of selection has been problematic, with some players no longer eligible on age grounds to play in the competition which has been spread out over 12 months.

In addition, Fairclough had to count out three players from his original 22-man squad after Burton and Exeter had their league game rescheduled for Monday.

The timing of the fixture on Burton's ground, two days before England's fixture there, did not please Fairclough.

But on a more positive note, the loss of two more of his players was down to moves to Football League clubs ahead of last Thursday's loan deadline.

Midfielder Michael Kightly left Grays to join Wolves, while goalkeeper Shwan Jalal was signed from Woking by Sheffield Wednesday.

Striker Aaron McLean also left the England set-up to join Peterborough in October, while of the squad that launched England's run in the competition, Gary Roberts, Ian Craney and Andy Bishop are all enjoying successful seasons with League clubs.

And according to Fairclough, it is a trend that will continue.

He said: "There are some good players coming out of the Conference. Make no mistake, players from this team will go on.

"They are all more than capable. They are the cream of the Conference for their age group and I would be glad to have any of them playing for me."

Cambridge United defender Michael Morrison has already trained with a number of Premiership clubs and with goalscorers always in demand, the likely front pairing of Clayton Donaldson and Craig Mackail-Smith will be closely watched on Wednesday.

With the backing of the FA, the squad, which has been training together since Monday under Fairclough and Northwich boss Steve Burr, are treated as a full part of the England set-up.

And Fairclough is hoping that National Game teams in the future will have an even bigger and better stage to play on.

"I am hoping the tournament will grow," he added. "We have shown everybody that it is organised really well.

"It is a good quality and we have had good crowds where we have played our last two games. I hope we could continue that and other nations will join in."