Lewis Hall admits he still can’t believe he’s become a full England international.
And he’s just relieved his parents were there to witness it – at the first time of asking. Hall’s meteoric rise to the top scaled new heights in Athens on Thursday night, when the Newcastle defender won his first cap as a second half substitute in the 3-0 Nations League win over Greece.
The left back only turned 20 in September, and has played less than 40 league games in his career. And he admits it will take a while for the moment to sink in. Hall said: “It’s amazing. I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet, really.
“Personally, I’m just lost for words really. Sometimes it’s difficult in football to really understand what happens. Everything happens so quickly, you don’t really get time to sit there and take it all in. At some point I’m going to have to do that.
“My mum and dad were here. I wouldn’t say I was expecting (the debut) to come, but I think for them they didn’t want to lose the opportunity.
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“So, whether it would have to be nine, 10 games where they have to come and watch me not play, I think they’d continue to do that whenever I got the opportunity, and I’m just grateful that I got it here.”
England moved into top spot in Nations League Group B2 as Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones’ superb finish completed the victory.
Jones produced a beautiful flicked effort with seven minutes of normal time to go, adding to Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins’ early opener and a 77th-minute Odysseas Vlachodimos own goal.
Playing their penultimate game under interim boss Lee Carsley – who started captain Harry Kane on the bench – ahead of Thomas Tuchel taking charge in January, the Three Lions leapfrogged Greece into first place and can now seal it, and promotion to League A, with victory over the Republic of Ireland at Wembley on Sunday.