5 Reasons Why Scoring On Your England Debut Is A Bad Idea

Harry Kane broke the internet again last night after scoring on his International debut within just 2 minutes of coming off the bench, the Spurs hitman has found his way into the hearts of Spurs and England fans alike with his hard working style and down to earth attitude and no doubt has a glittering future in front of him, or does he..?

Harry Kane has added his name to the list of players who scored on their International debut and it doesn’t always work out for the best as these players can testify.

Francis Jeffers

Once the great hope of English football, Francis Jeffers struggled to live up to even 5% of that tag and although he scored on his debut in England’s 3-1 defeat to Australia, that would be his last ever game for the national side. Jeffers career was blighted by injury and was labelled a flop after his horrendous record at Arsenal following an £8million transfer, Jeffers went on to play in Australia for Newcastle Jets and Motherwell among others before turning out for Accrington Stanley and then retiring, still at least he has a 100% goalscoring record for England.

Kieran Richardson

One goal didn’t suffice for Richardson on his England debut as he scored a brace in a 2-1 win over the USA in a friendly back in 2005 after Sven Goran Eriksen drafted him into the set up. At that time Richardson was playing for Manchester United and hotly tipped for future success, sadly it never quite happened for him and following spells at Sunderland and Fulham he is currently playing for Aston Villa. Richardson only ended up making 8 appearances for the Three Lions and call us pessimistic but we think it’s unlikely that another call up is on the cards.

David Nugent

Nugent joined Jeffers in the ‘1 game 1 goal’ club after he was called up in 2007 by Steve ‘I speak a bit of Dutch’ McClaren for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Andorra after Darren Bent was forced to pull out with an injury. Nugent had been in great form for Preston North End and his call up was welcomed by fans and pundits alike with McClaren gaining plaudits for bringing in a striker who played outside the Prem. Nugent was brought on with minutes left to play and in the 93rd minute scored what would be his first and probably last ever England goal. We say probably because he is currently plying his trade at the bottom of the Premier League with Leicester City.

Andros Townsend

It may well be too early to judge but Andros Townsend could well be following the fate of the aforementioned players despite scoring on his England debut. Townsend was praised as being one of the key factors to England’s World Cup qualification last year after a string of games which saw the pacey winger inject someenergy into the England side just when they needed it. Since that purple patch however Townsend has struggled with injury and poor form and runs the very real risk of turning into a Gabriel Obertan type player, quick and jinky but with zero end product, one of those players who flatters deceive and only time will tell whether he actually has the goods.

Shaun Wright Phillips

Another pacey winger who did the business on his debut was SWP who, in 2004 scored a cracker after coming on as a substitute for his England debut against Ukraine after a string of good performances for Man City earned him a call up. Now SWP may not be quite as bad as the rest of this little group as he did go on to make 36 appearances for the side scoring 6 goals. SWP was left out in the cold after he signed for Chelsea and that meant the same thing for his England career despite his efforts in the 2006 World Cup, SWP played his last game for England at the age of 28, arguably when a player is in his prime but not so in Shaun’s case.

There is a spot of good news however as a certain Alan Shearer also scored on his debut.

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