Green left blue at England snub

ROBERT GREEN cannot understand why he has slipped down the England pecking order after claiming he is in the best form of his career.

The West Ham goalkeeper was called into Steve McClaren’s squad for the summer games with Brazil and Estonia and insists he was told his “position was there to lose”.

But he was overlooked for the Euro 2008 qualifiers with Israel and Russia at Wembley in September and has again not been included for next week’s double-header with Estonia and the Russians in Moscow.

Green claims he has been given no explanation by McClaren who, along with England goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence, watched the former Norwich player in action at Aston Villa while fellow international hopeful Scott Carson was in the other goal.

Green performed capably enough before being beaten by a deflected free-kick from midfielder Craig Gardner which earned Villa a fourth successive league win.

Green said: “In the summer I was in the England squad and got told my position was there to lose — and I lost it through not playing a game.

“That’s something, if people want to find out about things like that, then it needs to be brought up with England. From my point of view, I am playing as well as I have done.

“When I was at Norwich in the Championship I got told I was good enough to be in the squad. Now I am playing with West Ham in the Premier League and playing well, it seems I’m not good enough.

“Players have come in and David James got picked on good form but I have lost my place when in good form. I’m obviously, in terms of choice, quite low down the pecking order.

“You try to work logic and sense into these things and the only thing you can say is they don’t regard me as good enough.

“I’ve had no explanation from England. I found out I was not in the squad when it came up on teletext. No-one has contacted me.”

Gardner was on target with a free-kick for the second time in five days and believes Villa, who temporarily at least climbed into fifth spot on Saturday evening, can push for a Champions League spot.

He said: “It was great to go fifth even if it might only have been for a few hours before teams played on Sunday.

“Can we stay up there? Definitely, why not go to fourth place? What is stopping us? The confidence is high, we are playing well and there is pace in abundance in the team so what is stopping us?

“I wouldn’t say we are going to surprise anyone now. I think people expect us to do well with the players we’ve got and the manager we’ve got. I don’t think people are surprised.”

ASTON VILLA (4-4-2): Carson 7, Mellberg 6, Laursen 8, Knight 6, Bouma 6, Gardner 7 (Petrov 78, 6), Reo-Coker 7, Barry 8, Agbonlahor 6, Moore 5 (Maloney 66, 6), Young 9. Subs Not Used: Taylor, Davies, Osbourne.

WEST HAM (4-4-2): Green 7, Neill 6, Gabbidon 5, Upson 6, McCartney 6, Ljungberg 5, Bowyer 6, Mullins 6 (Noble 80, 6), Etherington 5 (Boa Morte 81, 5), Ashton 5, Camara 5 (Cole 36, 5). Subs Not Used: Wright, Collins.

REFEREE: Steve Tanner (Somerset) 4 The game was stop-start enough without Tanner’s needlessly fussy decision-making. A poor display.

MATCH RATING: * * By no means a classic, but Villa will hardly care: this was a precious victory which reaffirms their European ambitions.