TONY Parkes picked out Tim Flowers for a top tribute, as the Blackburn Rovers and England keeper prepared to face the Premiership title favourites and top scorers Manchester United at Ewood this afternoon.

And he is delighted with the way the keeper has handled what might have been seen as a snub by England coach Glenn Hoddle to the most experienced of the present challengers for the understudy role to David Seaman.

Flowers has clearly been "demoted" by Hoddle in the England rankings recently, with the likes of Ian Walker (Spurs) and David James (Liverpool) taking preference in the national squad.

And now speculation about Leeds United's Nigel Martyn is threatening to push him further down the ladder in Hoddle's thoughts.

Yet, ironically, the England coach was part of the panel which named Flowers the Carling player of the month at the turn of the year.

In the wake of another calamitous night for James in Paris, Ewood's caretaker boss - along with many other good judges - believes Flowers should be restored to full bloom with England. And he reckons that it's time Hoddle, who has been including up to four goalkeepers in his recent squads, made up his mind about their respective merits.

"Tim has been playing excellently, the goals against record tells you how well a keeper is playing, as well as the outfield players," said Parkes.

"Technically, he's a very good keeper, as good as anyone in the country.

"I think everybody would say that Seaman is number one, there wouldn't be any arguments.

"But when you look at the other keepers, then Tim should be number two.

"It's been hard for him, because Walker got the game against Italy, then James played against Mexico."

"I don't know what Tim's done wrong, if anything.

"That's not said from a biased point of view, it's said from a football angle and from seeing them all. "Obviously I see a lot more of Tim than the others but from what I have seen, he looks the England number two to me.

"I was talking to Tim about it the other day and I think he's getting a little bit sick of it, because he can't see a way through.

"Glenn Hoddle should make a decision on the goalkeepers, it's an easy way out to have four of them at training.

"And I don't think we are alone here in thinking that Tim should be second only to Seaman."

Parkes, however, is delighted with the way Flowers has responded to the lack of opportunity at international level.

"His attitude to not being in the England line-up and the way he has worked and kept himself going here has been just tremendous," he explained.

"He's a workaholic, the way he goes about his job with the goalkeeping coach.

"Tim is top quality and keeps himself that way. That's the reason he is still doing so well for us.

"He hasn't let his head drop, because he sees the only way back is through working tremendously hard which is what he has been doing."

Recently, Sheffield Wednesday boss David Pleat had a go at an apparent lack of England opportunity for his goalkeeper Kevin Pressman, who has had an excellent season.

But, considering the clangers of the likes of James in recent matches, Flowers can feel particularly bitter that he hasn't had an international recall during Seaman's injury absence.

It will be interesting to see not only which keepers Hoddle picks for England's next match against Georgia at the end of this month, but also how many!

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