Wales keeper Paul Jones is not ready to allow his younger colleagues bet-ween the sticks to don the gloves at international level just yet.
The Queens Park Rangers stopper has won 47 caps to date and will turn 40 during the 2006-7 season, but is not yet ready to hand over the number one jersey to the likes of Pontypool's Glyn Garner and new Blackburn Rovers signing Jason Brown.
It comes after a miraculous turn around in fortunes during the qualifying campaign for the World Cup.
It seemed that Danny Coyne had secured his place as John Toshack's first choice, but an injury to both the Burnley keeper and Lewis Price prior to the match in Northern Ireland led to Jones' recall.
A series of impressive performances, notably in the goalless draw with Paraguay, have seen him back as favourite and he is keen to carry on.
He said: "It's been going well for me, I've been playing regularly for QPR and it's been going great. I never said I wanted to retire, I wanted to be playing on a Saturday for starters and then hopefully push into the national side.
"I worked hard to get here - it's a long road from non league football to international level and I just thought I've still got something to offer, why just throw it away for the sake of saying I've had enough?' when I hadn't. And I'm still enjoying training and playing at club level."
Jones stated after facing Paraguay on St David's Day that he wanted to make it to 50 caps, but has stressed that the milestone will not mark the end of his international career.
He said: "It was just a goal in my mind. I remember saying if I did half as well as Nev (Southall) I would have done well and I think he got 93 so I'm there!
"But I always set myself some sort of goal and it was never a case of If i get to 50 matches that's it', it was just a goal in my mind. It's now up to the other lads to push me out of the way."
First published on South Wales Argus website|