ON TARGETT FOR GARETH

DEAN SMITH claims Gareth Southgate should consider picking his Aston Villa left-back Matt Targett for England.

Southgate was watching at Elland Road on Saturday and Smith says the Three Lions boss would have been impressed by the tigerish display from the defender.

When asked if Southgate would have noted Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa’s performances, Smith said: “Yeah, he’d have been impressed, but I think he would have been impressed with Matt Targett, who’s having a fantastic season – his consistency has been great.

“Matt’s one of the players we brought in at the start of the Premier League last season and he’d be the first to say he had to work hard on his fitness to get to the levels we wanted.

“I feel he’s getting there and getting better all of the time. He’s been one of our stand-out players this season and put in another good performance.”

RUBEN NEVES has been challenged to score more goals like his headed equaliser at St James’ Park.

The midfielder’s late strike (left) was his fifth of the season, all of them coming in 2021. But Neves is hardly renowned for scoring with his head, something Nuno Espirito Santo wants changing. “It is something he should do more often,” said the Wolves boss.

“I’ve seen him do it in training. Sometimes the game does not allow midfielders to go in the box but, after we found wide areas, we were able to put a lot of bodies in there.

“And, fortunately, Ruben was there to make a good header.”