Robert Green was all smiles after producing a confident display in England's 3-1 friendly victory over Egypt at Wembley on Wednesday.
West Ham United goalkeeper Green shrugged off pre-match discussion over the No1 position, and an early opener from Pharaohs striker Mohamed Zidan, to put in a performance that is sure to have impressed head coach Fabio Capello.
The 30-year-old, who has kept clean sheets in his last four home Barclays Premier League appearances, also had words of support for Matthew Upson after his club-mate's untimely slip allowed Zidan to score.
Thankfully for Upson, England fought back to win through a Peter Crouch brace and a goal from Shaun Wright-Phillips, further increasingly the feelgood factor ahead of this summer's FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Click here for the full match report.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH ROBERT GREE'S WHUTV INTERVIEW IN FULL
"It was pleasing overall," Green told WHUTV. "Egypt had their chance and took it. We saw a lot of the lad Zidan before in the build-up to the game and he's a sharp player who took the chance when it came."I think it was good for us to bounce back the way we did in the second half. We put on a bit of a show in the second half and made Wembley our own, so to speak. It was a feather in our caps."
Green had sympathy for Upson, who slipped on a loose Wembley pitch, while also refusing to get carried away with playing the full 90 minutes at the Home of Football.
"There is a lot that has been said about the pitch over the last few days and he has had the rug pulled out from under his feet. It was something that was unforeseeable and something that was uncontrollable. What he did show was that he could shrug it off and continue to play how he wanted to play, which was as solid as ever after that, if not more so. That's the strength of character that Matt has.
"It's pleasing to play. I just want to play and I'm just looking forward after the success of Wednesday night's game and will try to do so in the future. I try not to read too much into it. After this I just want to look forward to Saturday's game."
A lesser concern for Green was his new luminous yellow goalkeeper kit, which he suggested had been designed to distract opposing strikers.
"It's meant to put off as many forwards as possible. We're going for the retro look and I must admit I didn't know they had that many bright colours back in the 50s and 60s! It's an interesting concept that I'm not going to criticise."
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