WHY A CAP CAN FLOAT POPE BOAT

IF Gareth Southgate was selecting his England goalkeeper on form, there is every chance it would be Nick Pope.

Yet it was not that long ago that Pope was getting up in the middle of the night to start his milk round.

Let go by Ipswich as a teenager, Pope (above) went into non-league football and had to earn his first wages the hard way. He explained: “I worked on a milk round and also had a job in Next as well. I didn’t get enough money!

“It didn’t pay much. I was on an electric float on a four-in-themorning round in Soham.”

In terms of starting at the bottom and reaching the top, Pope’s journey is one of the more remarkable ones.

He said: “Obviously when you get released by

Ipswich at 16 you think making it is a long way off.

“At one point

I was in Bury

Town Reserves in the Essex and

Suffolk Border

League. I think that was tier seven. I think I won the reserve version of the Suffolk Senior Cup.

“Some places you needed a map to find out where they were. There were 10 people and a dog there.

“So this is a day I never thought I would see come.”

Pope, 25, made the jump from Bury Town to Charlton Athletic in 2011 but spent five years hopping from club to club on loan, including spells at four non-league teams.

But he was picked up by Burnley in the summer of 2016 and could now make his England debut alongside club team-mate and centre-half James

Tarkowski, who resisted overtures from Poland before being called up by Southgate.

Tarkowski is still eligible for Poland through his grandfather but he said: “I always saw myself as English and now I am sitting here in the kit so to play for Poland would be difficult.”