Kingsley James is just enjoying the ride as he added an international goal-scoring debut to his impressive form in the Chester midfield this season.
The 22-year-old Blues midfielder scored in England C’s 4-2 victory over Estonia u23s on Tuesday - all under the watchful eye of Chester boss Steve Burr, who is part of the semi-professional international coaching team.
James, a free transfer signing in the summer, scored England’s fourth goal at The Shay with a header.
Asked if scoring headers was a rarity for the defensive midfielder, James, said: “Very much so!
“Steve Burr joked with me after the game why I don’t do that for Chester.
“But it was a different system we played with England with three midfielders, allowing one to bomb forward.
“I’d missed a good chance just before but to score with a header more than made up for the miss.
“It was great to score but it’s just been a really good few days with England.
“Having Steve there was good too. He implements the same set-up with England as he does with Chester.
“I could not be enjoying my football more. I’ve played more games this season than I did in the whole of last season and I’ve now scored two goals.”
Blues boss and England C assistant manager Burr was the first to salute James.
“I was really pleased to see Kingsley playing so well and I was chuffed to see him cap a good performance by scoring a goal in his England debut,” said Burr.
“It’s nice for everyone at Chester to see Kingsley being called up to represent his country, but I feel he fully deserved his call up because he has been playing so well.
“He is on the top of his game at the minute and that showed again on Tuesday night because he is playing with plenty of confidence.”
Burr and James returned to training in Chester today, focusing their sights on Saturday’s Conference Premier League home match against Bristol Rovers.
Burr added: “I’m hoping that Bristol Rovers will be bringing a big crowd and that we can attract more than 3,000 through the gate for this Saturday’s encounter.
“Each time we do well we seem to get more people coming to watch and I’m hoping that can continue this weekend on the back of our great result last Saturday against Gateshead.
“I’m delighted that we have demonstrated that we are a hard team to beat at home and that is down to our great support which really helps the lads perform - it’s a massive help.
“I’m aware that we are now six games unbeaten at home and that we are playing some great football. Hopefully that can continue because we’re always striving to show improvement.
“Bristol Rovers will provide us with another big test on Saturday, but Jon (McCarthy) and I will be doing all we can to prepare the players in the best way we can.
“We gave the lads a deserved break after Saturday’s win against Gateshead to try and recharge the batteries, but we can’t afford to ease off the hard work that we know we have to get through in order to get results.
“We’re going to face a very good Bristol Rovers side who have a big squad of players and are aiming to bounce straight back into the Football League after being relegated last season.
“But from our point of view we know that if we can play to our strengths then we give ourselves every chance of getting something out of the game.”
Also making his England bow last night was Wrexham striker Connor Jennings, who came on as a late substitute.
Jennings joined Wrexham in the summer following his release by Scunthorpe United and has scored three goals for the Reds this season.
Having enjoyed a prolific loan spell last season at Macclesfield, Wrexham will be hoping Jennings can rediscover that form in their bid to challenge for promotion.
For more pictures of Kingsley's impressive debut for England C, get a copy of today's edition of the Leader.
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