INTERNATIONAL: National Game XI defeat Dutch

England's National Game XI recorded an impressive 3-0 win over Holland at Woking's Kingfield Road stadium on Wednesday night, watched by an enthusiastic 3000+ crowd.

Paul Fairclough's side succeeded where Sven's failed earlier this month, beating the visiting Dutch team in fairly comfortable fashion.

Stuart Thurgood of Nationwide South leaders Grays Athletic scored the first goal for the home side after 26 minutes, finishing off an excellent move involving Barnet's Dean Sinclair.

Sinclair also had a hand in the second goal, which came just four minutes later, as he fed Karl Hawley from a free-kick, and the Carlisle forward pulled the ball back for Stevenage striker Anthony Elding to fire home from close range.

England's dominance continued in the second half, but their lack of composure in front of goal meant they had to wait until the 88th minute to score again, as substitute Liam Hatch - another Barnet player - emphatically fired in after a well-worked left-wing move.

Afterwards, a delighted Fairclough said: "This is the best performance from my side since we won the Four Nations Tournament two years ago. There were a lot of very, very good performances out there and even though the Dutch got men behind the ball in the second half, we fully deserved our win.

"Some of these players have a bright future ahead of them."

Go to www.conferencefootball.tv to view broadband highlights of the match