Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse was rewarded for his great form at the end of last season with a first senior start for England.

Manager Gareth Southgate gave him the nod ahead of the likes of Harry Winks, Jack Grealish and Mason Mount as England claimed a dramatic late victory against Iceland.

Saints striker Danny Ings also starred in the win, coming on as a 68th minute substitution for his first England appearance since 2015.

Both will be hoping they impressed their manager enough to play in the UEFA Nations’ League clash against Denmark on Tuesday.

  • Not wanting to be a one-cap wonder

Danny Ings has had to be a very patient man since his first England cap back in October 2015.

Many injury setbacks and months of rehabilitation have meant that he has been forced out of the England set-up for almost five years.

He’s had a failed move to Liverpool and has had to restart his career almost at Southampton.

Since then however, he has worked extremely hard to work his way back into Gareth Southgate’s thinking.

22 Premier League goals last season, second only to Jamie Vardy in the goalscoring charts, has allowed him to give his international career another go.

Earlier in the week, he expressed his desire not to be a one cap wonder and said that the memories from that gave him “something to work towards”.

  • Ward-Prowse rewarded

In terms of the game itself, a pretty boring affair was sent into a flurry of excitement in the last ten minutes when 10-man England were awarded a penalty which led to Iceland also going down to 10 men.

Raheem Sterling cooly converted from the spot to give England the lead late on but just a couple of minutes later, deep into injury time, Iceland were awarded a penalty themselves, which was blasted over the bar by former Aston Villa man Birkir Bjarnason.

James Ward-Prowse’s impact on the game was clear to see and it was good to see him rewarded for his brilliant post-lockdown form with a first start for the national team.

With many talented midfielders in the England squad, Ward-Prowse will be looking to assert himself as a regular England player.

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