By Pete Oliver

Fairclough's side are preparing to defend their trophy

The England C team will look to succeed where their senior colleagues fail when they take on Finland on an artificial pitch in snowbound Helsinki on Wednesday evening.

The squad, which is made up of players from outside English football's top four divisions, launches its defence of the International Challenge Trophy in the Finnair Stadium (kick-off 1800 GMT).

The side, managed by Barnet boss Paul Fairclough, has trained twice on the pitch as they look to do better than the defeat England suffered under Steve McClaren in their European Championship qualifier against Russia in Moscow last month.

"They did well for a while, but hopefully we can complete the job and not just part of it," said Fairclough, whose team will also be faced with temperatures that could drop to minus seven degrees.

"It will be doubly difficult," Fairclough told BBC Sport.

"There is an underground heating system, which takes the chill off it. But there are globules of ice on the pitch so the ball is not rolling, it's skidding.

"But we are managing to grip quite well on the surface and it will be an interesting education for us all."

The conditions may be alien to England, but under Fairclough they have built up an impressive winning record over the past couple of years.

Last season they completed their victory in the inaugural Challenge Trophy and also won the Four Nations 'home international series'.

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England's final fixture of last season saw them win 1-0 in Finland and Fairclough would love a repeat of that result as his side looks to making a winning start in the Under-23 competition which has now been expanded to eight teams.

He added: "It's nice that the tournament has grown. That was my vision when I came into the job (in January 2003), to get something going.

"Next year I want it to grow even more but we will settle for what we have got now and I want to win this one as well.

"We need to get a win on the board straight away."

England's group also contains Italy and Wales, who play each other in Milan on Wednesday, while the other group includes Slovakia, Belgium, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The winners of each group will meet in the final.

The Finland squad includes a couple of players from Inter Milan, as well as home-based players from their national Under-21 side.

Fairclough, meanwhile, has drawn his squad largely from the Blue Square Premier, although goalkeeper Adam Bartlett plays for Blue Square North side Blyth Spartans, while defender Liam Brownhill, of Unibond League side Witton Albion, will win his first cap.

He is one of nine newcomers in the 16-man party, with only Bartlett, Ebbsfleet goalkeeper Lance Cronin, Aldershot midfielder Lewis Chalmers and Burton Albion striker Shaun Harrad selected from the side that beat Finland in June.

"The most important thing when we got them here was to get them to gel like a club side," said Fairclough, who will have the backing of 16 Barnet fans who have made the trip to Finland, via Estonia.

"We have done quite a few psychological exercises to get them to gel and they are getting on very well. We have trained well and we have some good young players."

Of the squad that won last season's European title, well over half are now playing in the Football League and many of the current crop will hope to follow suit, either by helping their clubs to promotion or by securing a transfer.

In the meantime they get the chance to represent their country, with the team formerly known as the England Non-League side and the National Game XI preparing to play their first game as England C.

"What word is better than that? It's synonymous with the three lions. We are England," said Fairclough.

England C squad to face Finland: