Roy Hodgson can't wait to give Tottenham star chance to shine from start for England

Harry Kane has three goals from his four England substitute appearances

ROY HODGSON could not control his delight at seeing Harry Kane finish last month. Now he cannot wait to see what happens when the Tottenham striker starts.

 

So far, the trio of competitive games that Kane has played for England have all been from the bench. Incredibly, he has scored in each of them - three goals in just 64 minutes of match action.

That includes two in his two games this season - against San Marino and Switzerland - despite suffering something of a drought in a Tottenham shirt.

Hodgson, however, was there when that ended with a freakish opportunistic strike against Manchester City, punching the air in delight in the White Hart Lane director's box when the ball looped under the bar.

Yesterday he was leaving nobody under any illusions - Wayne Rooney's unfortunate injury on a night when he is to be honoured for his 50th England goal will give Kane an extended chance to bag a few more of his own. Indeed, there was almost an avuncular pride in the way he said it.

 

"He's waited a long time for his chance," said Hodgson. "When he first got his [debut] chance he scored with his first touch of the ball.

"It's now, this autumn, and we have him exclusively to ourselves. We believed in him. He's got a good career ahead of him, so it's nice he'll get an opportunity."

Hodgson was sheepish at the recollection of his reaction to Kane's goal.

"I try not to react because, while I'm the guest of one club, there are directors of the other club there who might be hosting me the next week," he said. "So I try to watch as stony-faced as I can.

 

Roy Hodgson has watched Harry Kane start for Tottenham this year, and will give him the same role

"But realising how much a goal meant given how long it had been. I found it hard to disguise on that occasion. For me it was an instinctive reaction."

The England manager is not the only one to have been embarrassed by Kane at White Hart Lane this year.

On New Year's Day in what is still probably the 21-year-old's finest performance, he was unplayable - scoring a hat-trick in Tottenham's 5-3 demolition of Chelsea. His beleaguered marker that day will be his captain tonight, Gary Cahill.

"Harry's been fantastic," the Chelsea player said. "In that particular game he was on fire. You get to know when you train with a player their attributes. I do think he's ready and he's a great striker.

 

"Last year he was fantastic. This season he's helped the team do well and, for us, training with him the last few days, you can see he's a top class performer.

"I think he's not scared to turn and try and run you. He has attributes as a finisher - left foot, right foot, good with his head... so he's got half a chance. Physically he's strong, he can be a target man, he can turn and try and run you, take you on. He's an exciting player, still young, still developing."

Consequently, in the kindest possible way, Rooney's absence this week is something of a blessing to Hodgson, who sees this as the last hurrah of qualifying before the serious business of preparing for the European Championships begins in earnest.

"If Wayne's going to miss anything, I'd prefer to be without him in these games rather than in November for the friendlies," Hodgson said.

 

"We've got an awful lot of work to do, playing together to do, against good quality opposition who will test us out to the ultimate extent. Will maybe bring out some flaws in our game that we don't always see in some of the games we play. But we're ready for that.

"We're not deluding ourselves. We can be rightly proud of the achievements since the World Cup. We don't need to hide our light under the bush in that respect, but we know there are big games ahead."

All of which puts a spotlight on Michael Carrick while Jack Wilshere is injured. Hodgson makes no bones about knowing most of his preferred team given a clear run of injuries at the finals, but feels he owes Carrick one last chance to kick-start his stop-start England career.

"In the absence of Jack I'd like to see Michael doing the job," said Hodgson. "We believe he can. We would like to see him play, which is why I didn't ask him to train today."