Roy Hodgson has faith in Andros Townsend

By Joe Fish, ReporterPublished: 28 February 2014 7:32 PM

Roy Hodgson challenges Andros Townsend to repeat his England heroics of 2013 after picking the Spurs winger in his latest squad despite his lack of recent action.

Roy Hodgson has challenged Andros Townsend to repeat his England heroics of last year after naming the winger in his 30-man squad for the friendly with Denmark.

The 22-year-old made an immediate international impact upon his surprise debut call-up in October, inspiring the Three Lions to a 4-1 win over Montenegro which helped secure their World Cup qualification.

A hamstring injury has prevented him from starting a Premier League game for Tottenham Hotspur since November, but Hodgson did not think it would be fair to penalise Townsend for his recent fitness issues by leaving him out of the group that will host the Danes at Wembley next week.

The England manager is hoping that the former Queens Park Rangers loanee will once again repay the faith he has shown in him by proving that he can produce the goods regularly for his country.

"We hope he can still have the same impact [as he did in October]," Hodgson told reporters. "He deserves to be in this 30. I didn't want to leave him out of this squad because he has had the injury and had not got back into the Tottenham team yet.

"I have shown him, I hope, that I have got faith in him and I hope he is going to do well and show me what he can do. He certainly did in October. He repaid my faith enormously.

"Now he has got to repay my faith in amongst this 30 and in the next couple of months by playing well for Tottenham."

Townsend faces competition from Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana for wide-man spaces in Hodgson's 23-man party for the World Cup in Brazil this summer.