Austin pays a glowing tribute to England striking rival Kane

QPR forward salutes ‘incredible’ Spurs star, who was selected ahead of him, after watching his dream debut. By Simon Johnson

CHARLIE AUSTIN harbours no bitterness towards Harry Kane after being overlooked for the England squad. Kane is in line to start his first match for the senior side, against Italy in Turin tomorrow night, having scored after just 79 seconds on his debut against Lithuania on Friday.

Austin will be watching the action from home after missing out on selection, despite scoring 15 Premier League goals for Queens Park Rangers this season. Kane is level with Diego Costa at the top of the goal-scoring charts on 19 and Austin has no hard feelings toward the Tottenham forward for being selected ahead of him.

He said: “If you look at the strikers, three picked themselves in Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck. If you don’t pick Harry Kane in the form he’s in — he has been incredible....so I didn’t expect to be picked.

“I was actually very pleased he scored [against Lithuania] and r i ghtly so because he has been on fire this season. It’s great for him to carry on the way he has done, get his debut and score. I was really pleased for him.

“It’s every kid’s dream to be a footballer and if you can make the step into international football, even better. That’s what’s I’m trying to do. Hopefully I can get there.”

Austin’s main priority is trying to help QPR recover from their grim position in the table to secure Premier League football next term. QPR are four points from safety with eight games left. It is no easy task because they have lost six of the seven matches played since Chris Ramsey took over as manager.

Ramsey had no experience of managing a club before being given the role at the start of February, whereas fellow

‘I was really pleased he scored because he has been on fire this season’

Charlie Austin strugglers Crystal Palace, West Brom and Aston Villa have all benefitted from hiring more seasoned coaches in Alan Pardew, Tony Pulis and Tim Sherwood respectively in mid-season.

But Austin believes QPR have bad fortune, rather than Ramsey, to blame for their current plight. He added: “Chris has come with new ideas. They have been working, well they did at the start but at the moment we have been unlucky. The games (we have been losing) have been tight. We are just not finishing our chances. We can still stay up. we have a good chance.”

Austin has also revealed that director of football Les Ferdinand is too busy to help Ramsey during training.

Ferdinand was handed the role last month after initially being employed as head of football operations.

Austin said: “I would like to say he is (helping the players in training) but he isn’t. He’s at the training ground but he has other matters to worry about.”