JORDAN Parkes returned to training at London Colney this week after his African adventure at the U20 World Cup.

There was no time for sight-seeing for the stars of the future however, as they faced a busy fixture schedule in the Egyptian heat.

England played three games in the competition, with Parkes playing in, and setting up the 88th minute equaliser, in their match against Uzbekistan.

"We played three different styles of football against the three different countries, a South American team (Uruguay), an African team (Ghana) and an Asian team (Uzbekistan)" explained the young defender.

"They were three totally different types of football, Uruguay were very decent and beat us 1-0 in the first match.

"Ghana had five full international players in the squad who were obviously very experienced. They were very good and beat us 4-0.

"Against Uzbekistan, we attacked the whole time and were very unfortunate not to beat them.

Parkes captained the reserves last season

"I like to get the ball forward, which I had the chance to do in that game.

"I got three or four shots in against them from full-back so I liked playing against them, but not managing to beat them and go through to the group stages was a bit of a killer in the end."

The Watford lad said that the experience of playing in a World Cup and in front of huge crowds was a dream come true.

"Playing for your country is amazing and it was an incredible experience to play in a World Cup for your country.

"It's what every player dreams of and it was great just to go out there, despite us not getting further in the competition.

"The last game we played out there was in front of a crowd of nearly 40,000 people, and that's a great experience to bring back to Watford."

SHOW YOUR COLOURS!