I WAS delighted to see Preston striker David Nugent had been called into the England squad for the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Israel and Andorra.

It has been an amazing few years for him.

When he came to Bury as a 16-year-old in 2001 while I was manager he had been to a number of clubs on trial like Liverpool, Everton and Northampton, which is where he was before he came to Gigg Lane.

Howard Revan, who was at Worcester with me in the late 80s, asked if I would have a look at him and it didn't take me long to realise he had potential.

He had great pace, desire and loads of enthusiasm and energy. He was a little bit raw but it was strange that nobody had taken him.

Nugent also had a natural instinct to be in the right place at the right time to score goals and he wanted to learn.

It's great to have helped in some way on his path to where he is now. He just needed that break and I managed to give him that start at Bury.

It is satisfying for me that he's gone on and represented his country at under 21s level and shows I was right to take him in the first place, but all the work has been done by him.

When he came to Bury we didn't think we had got a future senior England international on our hands but because other coaches have worked with him and improved his game, it looks like he's going to be and I am delighted for him and his family.

He was only 16 when he made his debut for me at Bury and he had he ups and downs before going to Preston in January 2005. But he managed to come through that and it's held him in good stead.

There are several players at Worcester who showed promise early in their careers.

Graham Ward represented the Republic of Ireland at under 20s level and Mark Danks was part of the England under 18s side.

But they have to have the things that Nugent possessed. He had a great desire and football was his focus. He worked hard on his game, listened and if he had knock-backs, handled them and worked even harder. Unless players have got that they are not going to succeed.

Danks has talent and is more than capable of playing at league level and Chris Cornes is another one, as are Ward, Shabir Khan and Troy Wood.

Those players are all young enough and capable of doing that but they have got to get the basics right.

It's a little bit more difficult at this level where players have jobs and football is not their number one priority, which it is for Jock and myself. If those players want to go on, it has to be for them.