Lithuania vs England: Roy Hodgson to hand Jack Butland first start but remains tight-lipped on Dele Alli

Stoke and Tottenham youngsters have impressed in the Premier League

(Reuters)

Roy Hodgson will hand Jack Butland his first competitive start on Monday when England complete their Euro 16 qualifying campaign in Lithuania.

Butland became England’s youngest international goalkeeper when he made his debut, aged 19 years 158 days, against Italy in Berne in August 2012, but he only played 45 minutes then and has not been capped since.

This, Hodgson explained, is partly because he has been playing for the Under-21s, but also because he has taken time to establish him self in the Stoke City starting line-up.

“He has been very good [for Stoke this season], he’s been very good for the U21s, we think he is a good goalkeeper,” said the England manager.

“For a long period of time he was the property of the U21s – and he wasn’t getting a regular game of football which makes things harder for a goalkeeper. Coming off the reserve benches is hard enough for an outfield player. But we always believed in him and he certainly has deserved his chance.

“Although Joe would have liked to have got another cap under his belt he fully understand this is Jack’s moment. Let’s hope he keeps a clean sheet like Joe has been doing.

“I think we probably have the best defensive record in qualifying, we certainly have scored the most goals.

"We don’t shout it from the rooftops all the time, we know it’s next summer that really counts. but it’s not a bad achievement.”

Dele Alli has impressed for Spurs (Getty Images)

Hodgson was more guarded on whether Tottenham teenager Dele Alli would play in Vilnius. “We’ll see,” he said. “Don’t start pushing too much with Dele Alli. It’s not out of the question he’ll play, I haven’t made my mind up about the team but Dele Alli was brought in as we thought he is an interesting talent.

"We’re thinking that by the summer he might have kicked on even further, like Ross has kicked on in the last year. So we wanted to have him with us and have a little bit of a look at him. When we went 2-0 up [against Estonia] it gave me a chance to look at him and put him on, which was nice. But don’t start hyping him up too much, he has an awful lot to do.

“If everyone was fit there might not have been a place for him in the squad, the place came in the squad as a lot of people dropped out, but he understands that he has a big England future.”