JAMES BEATTIE and Kevin Phillips look set to be the latest Saints stars to miss out on a major international championship - despite shining for their club.
Saints legend David Armstrong and teammate Claus Lundekvam are among those somewhat surprised that the pair appear to have been overlooked by Sven-Goran Eriksson for Euro 2004, even though the statistics clearly demonstrate superior goalscoring records to their main rivals.
"It's always the same that we seem to talk about players we'd like to see in the England squad," said Armstrong.
"If they continue with this sort of form, they ought to still be in with a shout. With the right sort of service they are as good as anyone in the country right now."
"I'm a little bit surprised," added Lundekvam.
"Obviously you need to be consistent over a long, long time.
"If they keep doing what they have done for the last few weeks I can see them being in contention for the England squad."
As our table shows, the duo are both among the top four English strikers in the Premiership this season.
And if you take away Jermain Defoe, who scored 15 of his 19 goals with West Ham in the First Divi- sion, then Beattie and Phillips are behind only Michael Owen among Eriksson's preferred choices.
Both have been comfortably more prolific this season than Wayne Rooney, and Brett Ormerod - often used as a substitute - also has a better ratio than the likes of Darius Vassell, Alan Smith and Emile Heskey, who all featured in last week's turgid 1-0 defeat against Sweden.
Beattie appeared four times for England last year, but has not been selected since the 3-2 defeat against Denmark last November.
Phillips has eight international caps to his name, the last coming in a 1-1 draw with Holland in February 2002. After taking his goals tally to eight in ten matches on Saturday, the 30-year-old said he didn't want to talk about a possible international return.
But Armstrong is delighted both with Phillips' goals and his all-round contribution this season.
Armstrong said: "When he first came, he had moved and was living in a hotel and that makes things very, very difficult.
"But I remember Gordon Strachan said Kevin Phillips was the best out-of-form player he had ever seen prior to Christmas.
"Everyone expected him to score goals every game. But even when he was not scoring so many, he never shirked the responsibility, he kept going, he wanted to be involved in everything and he is now getting his just rewards.
"It obviously helps that the team is playing well, but they are a potent strikeforce.
"James Beattie is coming good and they seem to be understanding each others strengths and weaknesses."
Lundekvam added: "I think both Kevin and Beatts have been superb in the last few games.
"They have really gelled together and I feel there is a great partnership there if they are both playing well.
"It takes a bit of time, Kevin came in less than a year ago and you have to get that understanding with who you are playing with."
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