Middlesbrough captain confident of England’s chances ahead of UEFA EURO 2012 qualifiers

England will aim to go one step further than they ever have before when the UEFA EURO 2012 preliminary round begins on Friday and their newest player Jason Kilbride thinks they have a great chance.

Jason Kilbride is one of the English futsal league’s most experienced players, having played all but one game of The FA Futsal League for Middlesbrough since its inception in 2008. However, he is the newest member of the Three Lions squad with only 2 caps to his name and is excited about playing in Europe’s top competition.

England weren’t far from qualifying for the 2010 edition, finishing runners-up to Kazakhstan in Dublin and will be confident they have improved sufficiently since then to mount a serious challenge against hosts Macedonia, Georgia and Estonia.

“I think we have a great chance,” Kilbride revealed. “The squad is full of ability and has been building up to this for a while now. I think after the training camp we’ve just had we are more than prepared and could surprise a few people.”

The Middlesbrough captain can’t wait to pull on the famous shirt once again and is prepared to do his bit. “It’s a great honour [to play in the UEFA EURO]. It’s the biggest [international] futsal competition in the world after the FIFA Futsal World Cup and I’m filled with excitement and a little bit of nervousness although that’s probably down to the anticipation. All in all I can’t wait to get out there,” he said. “I just want to do well for my country. As long as the team does well I’ll be more than happy; although a few goals and qualification for England would be great!”

Kilbride currently sits at the top of The FA Futsal League North with Middlesbrough and muses over his side’s performances so far this season. “We’ve had an inconsistent start to the season and we find ourselves top of the league which can’t be bad. We’ve shown moments of brilliance and touches of class but also had lapses in concentration, which have cost us. The Leeds game where we lost 10-5 epitomises our season, half of the game superb, the other half sub standard. If we tighten up at the back we'll be a force for anyone,” he continued. “We have two massive games coming up against Manchester and Sheffield; if we can take points of them we will be in a good position ahead of the second half of the season.”

England play Macedonia on Friday, before taking on Georgia on Saturday. They wrap the group up with a game against Estonia on Sunday. Middlesbrough Futsal Club will be keeping track of their captain’s progress through twitter – follow @BoroFutsal.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com