I was surprised to read a statistic that since the first England B game under Walter Winterbottom there have been just over 50 since.

I know in my time with England we had eight of them which I managed and thought at the time they were excellent platforms for those players who are on the fringe of the first team and too old to play in the under-21s.

Unlike young Walcott for instance, who is obviously ahead of his time, there have been cases of players who develop later and haven't been seen too much at under-21 level.

The problem of course is fitting in these games.

The clubs complain, at times rightly so, that international get-togethers interfere with their league games, particularly at critical times such as April onwards.

In the ideal world, instead of having just under-21 and full games in the allotted period, if a B game could be put in the night before I can't see anything wrong with it especially now that most clubs have got to accept, with the influx of foreigners, that most of their players will be away for those few days anyway.

In addition, I found that because all first team internationals were played at Wembley, taking the B team around the country gave lots of fans, particularly youngsters, an opportunity to see their first internationals.

I remember the likes of Paul Ince, Graeme Le Saux and Darren Anderton playing before they made the big step up.

It also takes away some of the frustrations of players who have got over the initial excitement of being named in the 22 players in the main squad but then find they are regularly sitting on the bench.

I remember, for instance, Tony Dorigo, who was certainly in every England squad picked by Graham Taylor in the three or four years we were together yet rarely got on because of Stuart Pearce.

Famously, in a European Championship game, our right-back was injured early on and Graham turned to Tony and asked if he would go there to which I was amazed to hear him say I'd rather not, I'm happier on the left.' Here was a fella who had been more or less twice around the world with us and had become more comfortable on the bench than on the pitch.

So this week's game at Reading was the first B game for quite a while, and the imminent World Cup gave it an extra flavour.

But added to that were the question marks over Michael Owen's metatarsal and, most of all for us down here, the selection of Theo.

The result was disappointing no matter what anyone says. I am pleased to say in my eight games we won six and drew two.

I seem to remember, mind, one was a total disaster.

Graham seized the opportunity to have some players available in the December and arranged a B game in Algiers. The gathering in England was made very difficult because of snowstorms and we departed a day later than was arranged.

The game in Algiers was held in a stadium which probably held more than 100,000 but was watched by less than 1,000 because would you believe Algiers had had snow as well for the first time in living memory!

In addition, Neil Webb became the first man ever to be sent off in a B game, by an eccentric referee who was obviously disappointed he wasn't going home with a suntan.

This was brought to mind this week when the referee had to send off one of the Belarus players, which turned out to be a lift for them as the ten men went on to score a winner.

Without actually being at the game it was difficult to assess young Theo's performance but generally, like Michael Owen, he was probably bemoaning the lack of good service to the front players.

He is obviously a yard quicker than most players, even at that level, and his very first touch of the ball brought a yellow card for one of the two defenders who sandwiched him to the ground.

His shot from long distance also impressed, but the higher the level you go it's very rare they will go in unless your name is Bobby Charlton.

He has certainly impressed everyone with his attitude but the news that Wayne Rooney is not 100 per cent fit leaves Sven with only three forwards, including Theo, and one has still to question the wisdom of selecting this young lad who has such little experience.

The further England go, and we all assume they will pass the first stages, the more experienced and tougher the defenders will be.

Theo's pace will have been noted, the marking would be tighter, defenders would be instructed to test him out physically. That is one of the biggest drawbacks as he is not as physically strong as, say, Rooney or Pele were at the same age.

As Pele pointed out recently, although he was only 17 when he played in his first World Cup he had already had nearly two years of international experience because that's how Brazil do things.

On the plus side, Lennon proved he could be an alternative wide man to Mr Beckham and mustn't Shaun Wright-Phillips and his advisers be wondering if that Chelsea move was such a good one? His lack of games has effectively removed him from the international squad Behind Lennon, Owen Hargreaves continues to baffle with generally the question being why is he there, particularly at right-back when he plays left-midfield for his club?'