ENGLAND ONE-CAP WONDERS
Saints goal hero targets Euro 2020 spot
Came on for Harry Kane in a 3-0 Euro 2016 qualifier win in Lithuania in October 2015 during his first season at Liverpool.
Sub in 0-0 Wembley draw with Brazil in November 2017 despite zero Premier League goals for Liverpool. Now at Bournemouth - and has yet to score for them.
Capped while at Sunderland by interim England boss Stuart Pearce despite just six league goals in four years. Now at Huddersfield.
Sub in friendly with France while in the Championship with Cardiff. Now plays in Japan.
Came on in a Euro qualifier against Andorra and scored by poaching Jermain Defoe’s goalbound shot. Was at Preston at the time - and is back there now.
Arsenal’s Fox in the Box also scored in his only game, a consolation in a friendly defeat at home to Australia. Ended up at Accrington.
Grealish Ings Stephens
DANNY INGS would love to give his solitary England cap some much-needed company.
The Southampton striker has stuffed it in the back of a drawer, desperate to add to it and avoid staying in that exclusive club of one-cap wonders.
His double target is to help fire Saints to safety and stake his claim for a place in Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2020 squad into the bargain.
Ings’ two goals floored relegation rivals Aston Villa, to take his total for the season to 13, with seven in his last seven.
Such figures are music to the ears of a man who suffered three years of injury hell at Liverpool just after making his Three Lions debut against Lithuania.
Ings, 27, opened the scoring in the 26th minute when he cashed in after Tom Heaton had saved Shane Long’s shot.
Jack Stephens made it 2-0 shortly before half-time with a powerful header and, six minutes after the break,
Ings lashed the ball into the roof of the net to put Villa on their backsides.
A piece of Jack Grealish magic pegged them back, but Saints (boss Ralph Hasenhuttl, right) could have had four or five and Ings a hat-trick. You won’t hear him complaining though.
The forward, who signed permanently from Liverpool in the summer after being on loan at St Mary’s, said: “I came here and the main aim for me was to just enjoy football again. This year I’m really having fun.
“I’ve heard talk about England but I’m just focussed on Southampton and what we’re doing here.
“It was good to get on the scoresheet and I’m a bit disappointed not to get a hat-trick, but to score goals in a performance that gives us three points – I’m over the moon.”
This was Villa’s fourth successive defeat and saw them drop into the bottom three.
Boss Dean Smith said: “The players know where we are at. They should get the message. They have to take responsibility – as do I.”