BEN’S FAN-TASTIC TIMES

BEN CHILWELL says it’s smiles better playing for Gareth Southgate’s Fun Boy Three Lions. The Leicester defender revealed Southgate’s bid for sunshine football is making the players feel like fans.

England head into Thursday night’s Wembley clash with Montenegro needing victory to book their ticket to the Euro 2020 finals.

Chilwell (inset) knows how the fans are feeling and said he had to tell team-mates Jamie Vardy and Harry Maguire what an impact their World Cup heroics were having last summer.

The 22-year-old said: “The way it is now since the World Cup and all the excitement that generated is unbelievable. “Especially with the way the team is playing. “We’re getting goals every game and it’s fun to watch. Well, it’s fun for me to play in – I presume it’s fun to watch as well. “Since the World Cup the manager has wanted us to bring that excitement. “He wants us to play for ourselves and the team but he also wants England fans to enjoy it after some of the heartache of recent years. “Gareth Southgate is an England fan himself – we all are. He says play for the fans as well. I was a fan watching the World Cup.

“You couldn’t help but pick up on the feelgood factor. I was speaking to Harry and Vards and telling them ‘I wish you guys could see how it is back here – it’s crazy!’ “I watched most of the games at home and I was at a music festival for one of them.

“The main stage was meant to have an act performing in front of 40-50,000 people, when the England game came on that just got squashed.

“They put the game on the main screen. No one cared about the music.”