Alex Pritchard said he won’t start thinking too much about his first call up to the England Under-21 squad until after Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship game against Rotherham United at The New York Stadium.
The 21-year-old, on a season-long loan spell from Tottenham Hotspur, has been included in Gareth Southgate’s squad for their Under-21 European Championship Qualifiers away in Lithuania and Moldova.
Alex has represented England at Under-20 level and featured twice in the U20 World Cup last summer for The Three Lions.
Speaking to Bees Player after he heard the news of his call up Alex said he was looking forward to joining up with the England squad.
However he added that his immediate concern in Brentford’s trip to Rotherham United this Saturday as The Bees look to avenge last season’s 3-0 defeat in South Yorkshire.
“I was training and when I came in I saw it on my phone,” said Alex.
“The quality of Under-21s football will be much better.
“Hopefully we can play well in the two qualifiers and win them both.
“The experience will be new to me.
“I had planned on going away and spending time with the family.
“Going away will be good for me and another step in the season.
“I am looking forward to it.
“I will be meeting new players as well as a few of the boys from Tottenham and that will be good for me.
“Hopefully I can keep progressing.
“I am proud as it is my first-time with the Under-21s and I am looking forward to it but we have the league game at the weekend so I will concentrate on that first.
“The boys were saying that they had a bit of a bad result there last year.
“Hopefully we can go there and turn last year’s bad result into a good one this year.
“The memory last year was a good memory for me, winning 4-0 there with Swindon.
“It will be different playing them in the Championship and they got a win at the weekend.
“They will be confident but we are confident as well that we can go there and get a win.”
Alex’s early season form at Griffin Park has been impressive with the midfielder missing only 11 minutes of league action so far and netting the equaliser in The Bees win away at Blackpool.
The Tottenham loanee said he has been pleased with his personal performances so far in TW8 and thinks they went a long way to securing his England call up.
The attacking midfielder said he has had a good experience so far during his spell at Griffin Park and thinks that improved results for the team are not far away.
“I hadn’t been thinking about anything other than playing my own game and working hard for the team,” said Alex.
“I have been looking to get on the ball and seeing what I can do.
“Hopefully I have shown that and that is why I have got the call-up.
“It has been good down here so far.
“With the way we have been playing then I think the results could have been better for us.
“We had ten men against Birmingham City for 75 minutes and we came back to get a point and could have won the game.
“If you look at the way we are playing then I think we will score more goals and get more points.
“It’s one of those things to get the fans on your side and hopefully I can carry that on.”
Brentford currently sit 15th in the Sky Bet Championship with five points from the opening four games with Saturday’s opponents Rotherham United a point and a place better off after their 1-0 win away at Millwall on Saturday.
Home draws against Charlton Athletic and Birmingham City have sandwiched a narrow 1-0 defeat at AFC Bournemouth and a 2-1 victory at Blackpool so far for The Bees.
Alex believes that Brentford’s performances have been better than their results have shown so far this season but thinks they are not far away from getting the results they deserve.
A win against Rotherham United on the eve of the international break would be a big boost for the squad according to Alex and send them into the two-week break from matches on a real high.
“It would be great to go into the international break high on confidence,” said Alex.
“I think we are close to getting where we can be and we are playing some good football.
“Three points at the weekend would make the international break much better.
“I think the team are a little bit disappointed with the points tally so far.
“Hopefully we can get the three points at the weekend.
“I am certain that we can if we play well.
“If we can get eight points out of the five games coming from ten men against Birmingham City, Bournemouth away where we definitely should have got a point and Charlton where we should have got the three points.
“It is just one of those things that we have to keep playing the way we are playing and the results will come and the points will come as well.”