Trio retain England places

James Tomkins, Junior Stanislas and Zavon Hines are all in line to appear at Wembley after being named in the England squad for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Portugal.

The match on Saturday week will be the fourth match in qualification for the 2011 finals. The Three Lions are second in their section after a 6-3 win against FYR Macedonia last month, when Hines scored twice on his debut. In all, coach Stuart Pearce has named a 22-man squad for the match which will be played in front of a fixed-capacity 30,000-crowd.

The Hammers trio will then fly with England to Vilnius over the weekend ahead of the meeting with Lithuania on Tuesday 17 November. Understandably, though, it is the Wembley date that is most occupying England thoughts.

Speaking to the FA.com, Pearce said: "The important thing is to give these players the experience of Wembley. We're doing it, so these young players get a feel for the national stadium and what it's like, so hopefully sometime in the future a few of these will be stepping out for the seniors.

"Whilst most of them won't know yet what it's like to play a senior international match, at least they can get a feel of the stadium, the crowd, and the importance of needing to win the match."