PETER Crouch has vowed to make the most of his England recall after reaping the benefits of playing regular first-team football with Portsmouth.
The former Liverpool striker was left out of the squad chosen by Fabio Capello for the August friendly against the Czech Republic and the World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia. But a flurry of recent goals for Portsmouth has earned Crouch
another chance with his country for Saturday's home meeting with Kazakhstan and then away to Belarus on the following Wednesday.
And the 27-year-old believes he and Jermain Defoe can play as effectively for England as they have been since linking up together at Fratton Park.
Crouch said: "Hopefully, if given a chance in the team, I'll take it. When I was at Liverpool, I was not playing as many games as I needed. Now I am playing regularly, I always felt I could score goals and do well enough to be in the England set-up.
"That is proving to be right at the moment, but I have to keep things going. When I was out of the squads, I was not the sort of person who would sulk and throw my arms in the air.
"I'd rather get down and work hard, do the business for the club – if you do that you will get a call-up. The manager (Capello] has proved in the past that he has left players out at times, but, if they work hard and do well at club level, they will be straight back in. The door always seems to be open. Form is very important. I feel confident and delighted to be back involved."
Crouch knows there is stiff competition for places up front with the likes of Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey also vying to be in the starting line-up, but he has faith in his partnership with Defoe and believes they would do well if given a chance.
The former Aston Villa player said: "We have four strikers and you have to have different options. If a game is going one particular way, you need to be able to change it and we have got those kind of personnel. There is competition up front, but I think it helps that myself and Jermain played together. We have been lucky enough to set each other up for a few goals.
"We play well as a partnership. If you are playing regularly and scoring goals, it is good for the national side."
Crouch admired the way England demolished Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb last month to take control of their qualifying group and insists the squad is now bubbling with confidence.
He said: "There is definitely more of a spring in the step of the players on the back of the win against Croatia. It is a very difficult place to go and win and the manner in which England achieved it has got to breed confidence throughout the squad."
Meanwhile, Frank Lampard believes further focus on whether he and Steven Gerrard can combine at the heart of England's midfield is "looking at the wrong issue" for national team success.
Capello will be forced to change the side that thumped Croatia for the Kazakhstan game due to a foot injury to Chelsea wideman Joe Cole.
It is believed the Italian will ditch his holding midfielder, a role filled so well by Aston Villa's Gareth Barry in Zagreb, and instead opt to pair fit-again Liverpool captain Gerrard, who missed the Croatia victory, with Lampard in the centre.
Lampard, though, maintains the perpetual examination of the dynamics of their partnership is unnecessary.
"It is very important to talk about the team," the 30-year-old said. "We can look into the wrong issues. We are breaking it down much too much.
"We (Lampard and Gerrard] have been playing at a high level for our clubs and people expect the same for England and it does not always happen. But the Croatia performance shows that when we play as a team, that is what is important."
The majority of the England squad gathered for a training session at Arsenal's London Colney complex yesterday.
However, captain John Terry was a notable absentee. The Chelsea skipper, 27, felt a niggle in his back at the end of the Premier League leaders' 2-0 win over Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
The full article contains 746 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
