BRAINTREE Town winger Dan Sparkes expressed his delight at being named in the England C squad this week.
Sparkes will travel to St George's Park after the Iron's weekend game with Eastleigh for a training camp with the team ahead of fixtures against Turkey and Estonia in October and November.
The 22-year-old was originally named in the contingency squad, but due to injury he has been promoted.
Sparkes said: "I am absolutely delighted to have been called up into the squad, to be honest I have only just found out so it hasn't really properly sunk in yet. I gave myself a couple of aims at the beginning of the season, one of those was to get more goals and the other was to be selected for the England C team.
"I play for Braintree on Saturday then have a long weekend with the squad at the training camp and hopefully will be involved in the two games in October and November. To be fair I am slightly surprised that none of the other Braintree lads have been called up as well.
"We have had a great start to the season and all the guys are young and keen to do well."
Sparkes will be hoping to impress England C manager Paul Fairclough, who will trim the squad for their Challenge Trophy Group A qualifying matches against Turkey on October 14 and Estonia on November 18.
The winger scored his third goal in five games in the 3-1 win over Aldershot on Tuesday night. And with boss Alan Devonshire only able to field four substitutes because of injuries and the suspension of captain Kenny Davis, Sparkes paid credit to the club's strength in depth.
He added: "I don't think that I have ever been in a squad that has had so many injuries. Even Tuesday night we had people with knocks playing and it is just a credit to everyone that we can beat teams like Aldershot.
"We said at the start of the season that this is a strong squad with competition for places. And the starting line-up on Tuesday didn't do themselves any harm in pushing for a place.
"I gave myself the aim of getting into double figures this season. Last year I only managed three goals, which I have already reached this year. I have decided just to be a bit more greedy around the goal and so far it is working for me."
