Hart: Wilshere's age is irrelevant

28 March 2011 08:00

England goalkeeper Joe Hart believes it is time to stop mentioning Jack Wilshere's young age - just 19 - and to concentrate on lauding his quality.

Wilshere produced an impressive performance on his competitive debut for England in Saturday's 2-0 triumph over Wales in a Euro 2012 qualifier. He linked up effectively with Frank Lampard and was able to get forward to good effect with Scott Parker in the holding role.

Hart said: "I thought Scott and Jack did really well. Jack is a class player. It's time people stopped talking about him being a good player for his age. He's a good player, never mind his age. The only thing to be said about his age really is that, hopefully, it means England have got him for many years to come."

He added: "He handles everything so well and is a class player."

Hart did not have to make a meaningful save in the 90 minutes at the Millennium Stadium as goals from Lampard and Darren Bent wrapped up the points in the first 15 minutes.

He said: "It was a bit of a quiet game for me but the lads had virtually won the game in the first 20 minutes or so.

"They kind of killed whatever sort of buzz Wales were going to get from playing at home in the Millennium Stadium.

"The goals came at the ideal time and really kind of put a halt to anything they were going to do.

"I also felt that we had plenty left in the tank if we had needed to step up a gear.

"They have some good players who are very dangerous like Joe Ledley and Aaron Ramsey and Craig Bellamy. We knew they were always a threat and that's why I thought we defended really well."

Source: PA