ENGLAND BET'S NOT FOR MATT

STOKE 3 BLACKBURN 0

Even if Matthew Etherington was still gambling he says he wouldn’t be tempted by the 12-1 against him making England’s World Cup squad.

For the rest of us? Well, it might just be worth a flutter.

Stoke’s winger has been a revelation since he moved from West Ham and started ­running at full-backs instead of running up debts.

He’s just signed a new contract, is fitter than he’s ever been and happy off the field with a steady girlfriend.

And just to underline his new attitude he says he even passes all the man-of-the- match champagne to her!

It’s made boss Tony Pulis believe his ­reformed star could be the surprise late entry to Fabio Capello’s squad for South Africa.

Pulis said: “He’s got 15 games left to really push that home now and if they pick up a couple of injuries on the left-hand side who is to say that Matty ain’t good enough to go?

“And don’t tell me Stoke’s too unfashionable a club for the England manager to come here because his assistant has been, and Stuart Pearce has a few times, too, so they have been looking.”

Etherington lit up a relentless game of set-pieces and percentages with a dazzling second-half goal that exposed sorry ­Blackburn’s lack of quality.

And on an afternoon that was ­designated Sir Stanley Matthews Day, the winger was the one thing worth watching – other than the grainy black and white film of the old Wizard of Dribble on the big screen ­beforehand.

Etherington said: “I’m happy with the way things are and yes, it’s probably the best form of my career but as for England I won’t be getting my hopes up.

“There are four or five great players in my position, Stewart Downing, Joe Cole, ­Steven Gerrard can play there, you can keep coming up with names. I’m not ­going to get above myself.”

Etherington, who once racked up £800,000 gambling debts, added: “I have curbed all that now, I am not gambling any more and I don’t want to.

“I will be the first to admit I made ­mistakes. It was a silly time of my life and it got on top of me.

“But I’m happy now in my career and my personal life and that leads to doing well on the pitch.”

Blackburn were just battered by a ­constant stream of Rory Delap long throws and were out of it as soon as they let Danny Higginbotham have the room to volley home after just eight minutes.

Mama Sidibe got on the end of Etherington’s cross just before the break and when Chris Samba got his second yellow card with more than half an hour left it finished a miserable afternoon.

Boss Sam Allardyce tried to pick on ­referee Steve Bennett over that, but the truth was his own team were awful.

But Allardyce did concede: “I am very ­disappointed in our overall performance.

“The players weren’t as good as they should have been.”

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