Loach: Let's send out a message
Jamie Bradbury
Tuesday, 17 November, 2009
Scott Loach wants England to send out a message with another win
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To watch the full interview with Scott, click on the player on the right of the page
It’s been a rollercoaster of a year for England Under-21s ‘keeper Scott Loach. He only made his debut in a friendly in Spain against Ecuador in February, but has featured in the European Championship Final and claimed ten caps for Stuart Pearce’s side.
And it hasn’t all be good. After being on the receiving end of four goals from a rampant Germany side in Malmo in June, he’s come back stronger and now hopes the new look Three Lions side can go one step further this campaign.
After a 1-0 win and a clean sheet against Portugal on Saturday, the Watford stopper is in confident mood as he and his team mates prepare to take on Lithuania in the capital Vilnius on Tuesday evening.
“It’s very cold, but it’s another I can tick off the list and I’m enjoying being here,” Scott told TheFA.com as he sat in the team hotel focusing on their final game of the year.
“We won’t be able to walk in there and turn them over three or four nil. They are on four points the same as Portugal, so it will be a tough game.
“Macedonia put us under pressure and they turned Macedonia over the other night. They’ll be out to prove a point, we’ll have to be ready for them, but if we go about the job in the right way, like we did against Portugal, then we can get the three points.”
The 21-year-old continued: “I think it was my first clean sheet in a full game for England, which was much-needed, not just for me but for the team as well. We did beat Macedonia and we did score six, but nobody wants to concede three. We tidied up defensively and all the way through the team and we really shut Portugal off.
“Everyone thinks of Portugal as a big team in Europe, but I think we showed that there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be mentioned above them.”
The Nottingham-born ‘keeper moved to Vicarage Road in 2006 from Lincoln City, and his early days with the Hornets was punctuated by loan moves to Morecambe, Bradford City and Stafford Rangers.
But after making his first team debut at the start of last season, he impressed enough at Watford to get his name into the England reckoning. Though he spent much of last season as an understudy to Joe Hart in Pearce’s squad, Loach believes that he learned a lot from his team mate, as well as goalkeeping coach Martin Thomas.
Now he hopes he can share some of his experiences his own England stand-ins, Frank Fielding and Alex McCarthy.
“Frank’s a top man, he’s very funny, probably one of the funniest lads here. He’s got a good sense of humour.
Alex is younger than us both and has a bit of a virus at the minute so is missed on the training ground. I know it’s all competition for between us, but do have a good laugh when we’re together.
“I was the new kid last time around and I suppose Alex is like that this time. Everything that Joe passed on to me if I pass on to Al hopefully he can step up in the future.”
He added: “Thommo’s brilliant, he’s been there, done that and been in the game for a long, long time. He’s produced a lot of top quality goalkeepers and if I can do what I can to be the next one I’ll be very thankful to him.”
But now Loach is focused on Tuesday night’s meeting with Lithuania at FK Vetra, and hopes the Three Lions can follow up Saturday’s win at Wembley with another three points to end 2009 on a high as they aim to reach the next European Championship Final in Denmark in 2011..
“Two back to back wins would be nice,” he said. “The Final didn’t go as well as everyone wanted last year, but since then we’ve had a good time, unbeaten, and if we can take that on into 2010 there’s no reason why we can’t carry it on until the end of 2011.
“You want to win every game because it can send a message out across Europe.”
England kick off against Lithuania at 4pm (GMT), you can follow the updates from the game here on TheFA.com