TIBS EXCLUSIVE – Matt Le Tissier: “Andros Townsend’s debut shows England has young talent.”

England are in safe, young hands thanks to Roy Hodgson’s bold World Cup gamble.

His decision to play Andros Townsend against Montenegro paid off handsomely with a 4-1 victory.

And with the likes of Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge in his squad England can look ahead to the future with some confidence.

I think it is good that the England manager has given these young boys the chance and they are really grabbing it with both hands.

They are now giving him a decision to make when it comes to team selection.

It was a big gamble for Hodgson to pick Townsend ahead of Wilshere but it turned out to be a dream debut.

He was very lively throughout the game and he took his goal very well.

Townsend showed an incredibly mature and positive manner and it was great to see.

He realised this was his chance and he wasn’t going to let it pass him by.

Hodgson had obviously studied the opposition and knew what kind of shape would do best against them – and fair play to the team they got the job done.

It looked a good team effort and there was some very unselfish play going on there at Wembley as well.

There is obviously a change happening at international level at the moment where we are seeing a lot of players coming towards the end of their careers.

People like Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have been around for a long, long time and they are not going on forever.

This is probably their last chance to reach and play in a major championship so they have got to try and make the most of it.

But we’ve also got to build for the Euros in 2016 and England appear to be heading in the right direction.

I always fancied that England would get through to the Finals in Brazil without needing the play-offs.

And after beating Montenegro with something to spare the boys have put themselves in a good position to get there now.

Poland will have little to play for at Wembley on Tuesday night and if we can get an early goal I think they will crumble.

Hopefully, we can continue on from our last performance on Friday and get there in style.

Reaching Brazil will give the entire country a boost and give a big lift to the young players who helped get us there.

*Read Matt Le Tissier’s blogs and enter his free goal-prediction game and win £200 in November by logging on to www.goaldengoals.co.uk.

This photograph was provided by Goalden Goals.