By Matthew Jones
October 17 2003

Newcastle United midfielder Jermaine Jenas has targeted a place in England's squad for the Euro 2004 finals after earning a recall to Newcastle's starting line-up. He was excluded from the side at the start of the season, and Jenas has admitted that it knocked both his confidence and his form. England coach Sven Goran Eriksson also left him out of the England squad for the last three games

20-year-old Jenas now insists that he is back to something like his best - and that his assist for Laurent Robert's goal against NAC Breda on Wednesday night marked the start of his season.

HE SAID: "My season has finally taken off. My match sharpness has returned and I've got the pace of the game back.

"I was out of the side in the first few weeks of the season and it was obviously frustrating for me.

"It's always hard when you're only getting the odd 10 minutes here or 20 minutes there and I think my form suffered as a result. It was stop-start the whole time - I couldn't find my rhythm.

"But the manager has given me a nice little run in the side recently and I feel as though I'm getting it back. It's up to me to make sure I keep my place now.

"My aim has got to be to get back into the England squad in time for Euro 2004.

"I appreciate that it's going to be tough because the lads who've come in have done very well to help to secure automatic qualification.

"But you have to have aims and hopefully I'll get another chance to show what I can do."

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