Robert Green is relishing the chance to stake his claim for the England No1 spot against Slovenia with a potential fourth consecutive appearance on Saturday.
The Wembley friendly will be vital for Fabio Capello as he considers his options ahead of next Wednesday's visit of Croatia for a FIFA World Cup qualifier that would see a victory book his team's place in the South Africa finals. Green may be the man in possession but he is taking nothing for granted.
"My chances are the same as everyone else's who's playing," he said. "The manager has said before that we will pick his players on who is playing well for their club and who trains well and that's how it is. I'm not going to question that and that's all we can take from it."
His main rivals are Manchester United's Ben Foster and Blackburn Rovers' Paul Robinson with the latter watched along with Green by national-team goalkeeping guru Ray Clemence at Ewood Park on Saturday. "As I've always said with stuff like this there's stuff like this you can control and stuff you can't control," said Green. "The things I can control is how I play for West Ham."
It is clear that the 29-year-old is targeting next summer's finals when asked an offbeat question about which player in football he would most like to swap shirts with. "I would like to swap shirts with all the other goalkeepers in South Africa. I don't think I need to explain that one."
His club-mates Matthew Upson and Carlton Cole are similarly motivated and Green believed they could both figure for Capello in the next two fixtures. "I would rate their chances pretty highly. Matt's been a mainstay for quite a while and Carlton was a shining light in the last game against Holland."