Fairclough is a big fan of dependable Kenny (From Braintree and Witham Times)

Fairclough is a big fan of dependable Kenny

10:00am Friday 1st June 2012 in Sport By Simon Spurgeon

The dependability of Braintree Town’s captain continues to catch the eye of England C manager Paul Fairclough.

Kenny Davis has linked up with Fairclough’s national under-23 side – which is made up of players exclusively operating outside the Football League – for a third time ahead of their International Challenge Trophy (ICT) group game in Russia on Tuesday.

Having impressed the England boss in a friendly game against Gibraltar in November and then again in their ICT opener against Italy in February, Fairclough had no hesitation in putting Davis’ name straight down on his squad list this time.

Speaking to the Times, Fairclough said: “I know what I’ll get from Kenny in the middle of the park.

“When you get players going out on to the pitch you expect at least a seven out of ten performance as a starting point, certainly not a five or six.

“I know that I’ll always get seven as a minimum from Kenny and more often than not an eight or a nine.

“He is reliable and dependable and we have seen when he has been with England so far that he listens and he learns quickly.”

“I think we’ve seen him mature in the last year.

“The Gibraltar call-up was a chance to get a feel for him and we saw that his attitude was first-class and then against Italy, he ran himself into the ground for us.

“He was literally running on fumes at the end of the game. You can see that playing for England means a great deal to him.”

Fairclough wasn’t the only one who has been impressed by Davis in his England appearances.

The Iron skipper was named as the England C team’s Player-of-the-Year in the Non-League Paper’s National game awards in association with VIPER10 Sportswear last week.

Fairclough added that both Jai Reason and Ben Wright, who have both now left Braintree, also came close to gaining international call-ups.