Share this page :
FacebooktwittermailFacebooktwittermail

Nick Pope played for England a couple of days ago against San Marino at Wembley. It was his fifth full England international cap and numbers six and seven are scheduled to be in the bag before he next plays for the Clarets.

England have two more World Cup qualifiers in the next few days. It’s a trip to Tirana to play Albania tomorrow and back to Wembley for the home game against Poland next Wednesday. Coach Gareth Southgate has confirmed that Pope will play in both games.

Embed from Getty Images
“Nick was always going to play the next games anyway,” said Southgate. “He’s been really patient for his opportunity. He performs consistently high every week for his club and he’s been with us for a long time, waiting for this moment. He’s a very calm character. We like his personality.”

Given his lack of action in the 5-0 win against San Marino, Southgate joked that Pope would probably be able to wear the same kit. He added: “We knew against San Marino he wasn’t going to be overworked. I’m sure it will be different in the next games.”

Pope is one of 29 players who have represented England at full international level whilst at Burnley. It all started with Jack Yates back in the 1889 but the was stuck on 24 from Martin Dobson’s  England debut in 1974 (Dobson is far left on second photograph ahead of his fourth appearance against Yugoslavia) until Tom Heaton became number 25 in 2016. Since, Michael Keane, Jack Cork, James Tarkowski and Pope have taken that number to 29.

Embed from Getty Images
When Pope returns to Burnley having played seven times for England it will equal the number of times Louis Page played, all of his games coming in 1927, with only four players having won more England caps as Burnley players; he will be just four appearances behind the leader.

His next targets will be Jack Hill and Colin McDonald. Hill made eight of his eleven appearances as a Burnley player for McDonald it was eight in total before injury ended his career. Then it’s John Connelly; he represented England twenty times, the most of any, but just ten of those came before he left Burnley for Manchester United.

The leader is Bob Kelly (third player from the left on the back row on the third photograph, Scotland v England in 1925)). Between 1920 and 1925 he played eleven times for England as a Burnley player. He went on to add three more internationals appearances, one in each of the next three years. He was a Sunderland player for the first of them and the last two came after a move to Huddersfield.

Embed from Getty Images
We’ve never been blessed with England regulars. Some players from other clubs have represented England over a hundred times. In total, the appearances of the Burnley players comes to just 97. Pope will take that total to 99 and it is very likely he will be the player who takes us into three figures.

The list below shows the number of caps won by each of those 29 players. Where there is a number in brackets after a player’s name, it relates to the total number of caps won in total.

11: Bob Kelly (14)
10: John Connelly (20)
8: Jack Hill (11), Colin McDonald
7: Louis Page
5: Billy Elliott, Nick Pope
4: Martin Dobson (5)
3: Jack Bruton, James Crabtree (14), Bert Freeman (5), Tom Heaton, Ray Pointer, Willie Watson
2: William Bannister, Ralph Coates (4), Jerry Dawson, Eddie Mosscrop, Michael Keane (12), James Tarkowski
1: John Angus, Tommy Boyle, Jack Cork, Gordon Harris, Jack Hillman, Brian Miller, Brian Pilkington, George Waterfield, Jack Yates

Follow UpTheClarets:
FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter


Share this page :
FacebooktwittermailFacebooktwittermail