Pearce: Joe has Hart for England job

Joe Hart has got the right temperament to be huge success as an England international, according to Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce.

When he was in charge at Manchester City Pearce bought the ‘keeper from Shrewsbury for £1.5million and his confidence in Hart’s ability is clearly undiminished.“When we first saw Joe we felt he had a lot of the attributes required to become a top goalkeeper,” said Pearce.

“He is 6ft 4in and his distribution, with both hands and feet, is fantastic.

“More than that, he has a relaxed, laid-back temperament.

“All young goalkeepers make mistakes, it is a natural part of their progression. But he has the ability to put it to the back of his mind and move on.

“That is important, especially when you play in goal. If you let a mistake get to you for 90 minutes you are going to have a problem.

“Joe is such a level-headed kid. He knows exactly where he wants to go and what he wants to be.

“At Manchester City he could just have sat on the bench behind Shay Given and picked up his money. But he said he wanted to play.”

Hart is widely expected to get the nod in goal when Fabio Capello’s men face Egypt at Wembley next week and another confident display will surely put him in contention for the England number one spot.

Hart has been in consistent form this term while on loan at Birmingham and Capello has already stated he is a big fan of the player.

Barring injury, Hart should take his place on the plane to the World Cup finals in South Africa alongside two others with Paul Robinson, David James and Robert Green the leading candidates.

Currently England’s football World Cup betting odds make them third favourites to lift the trophy.

Meanwhile, the Cheltenham betting for this year’s festival has really started to hot up and the main focus of attention has been the battle between Kauto Star and Denman in the Gold Cup.