Dan Burn admits he walked into the England camp fearing he would be ‘out of his depth’ at international level but now believes he can be in Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad.
Putting aside two late lapses in which Albania broke clear at Wembley, Newcastle United star Burn had a strong debut and ended the match with a remarkable 154 touches while also making 137 passes. His Three Lions debut was almost capped off with a goal when he struck the Albanian crossbar in the first half as Tuchel played to his strengths.
Despite Burn’s steady display, he endured some harsh write-ups in the national Press, but the former Darlington defender is now targeting a place at next summer’s World Cup. If he makes it at 34 years old it will represent one of football’s fairytale rises from non-league to the greatest show on earth.
Burn, who felt his England debut was 32 years in the making as his country’s oldest debutant since 2010, told me: “It has lit a fire in me to want to carry on, make me want to make it to the other camps and hopefully get to the World Cup.
“It has been a good thing really (being 32) because I have built up to this for many games. I didn’t feel out of place or out of my depth.
“I was worried in training that I would feel that way. But as soon as I got my first training session over with it gave me confidence that I could do it.”
Burn told ChronicleLive exclusively: “I wish my team-mates had been there to watch. I spoke to them all and they were watching over in Dubai which was nice of them.
“It was a great day for me on Friday to make my England debut but it has just been a great week. I think the adrenalin carried me through the game at times because it has been a pretty quick turnaround.
“I felt pretty calm throughout and I wasn’t nervous. I was just looking forward to it. The second half I tired a little bit so my performance dipped a little bit so I was disappointed. But all round I could not have asked for more.”
Burn can’t be accused of not seeing much of the ball given nobody in a white shirt saw it more. The Blyth warrior said: “It was always going to be like that. Albania are a very well organised team. They put a lot of men behind the ball and we were always going to get a lot of possession. For me I was always going to get he majority so I was quite happy with the way it went.”
Had Burn scored on his debut it would have been icing on the cake for the star who scored in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool. However, he reflected: “I could have had another goal. Maybe I’m being a bit greedy!
“It wasn’t far away so I was a bit disappointed that I could not manage to get it in. To win 2-0 in my first game is great.”
Burn received his legacy cap from Tuchel over the weekend and now stands by for his second appearance for England against Latvia this evening at Wembley.
