United States-based defender Avery John is setting his sights on acquiring a fixed spot in the Trinidad and Tobago team for the remainder of the 2006 "Journey to Germany" World Cup qualifying campaign.
And he's confident that a new outlook to his game can impress St Clair sufficiently.
"Once you play football at a professional level , you goal is always to represent the national team at the senior level, particularly when you've come up the different age levels as I have done with the country. I've played with most of these guys before and now coming back for is obviously one of the biggest stages now with us going after a place in the World Cup is no better time to be part of the set up again," John told TTFF Media on Sunday.
Having helped New England to the Eastern Conference finals before they were beaten by DC United, John, who had 17 first team appearances with one spectacular goal against Columbus Crew, feels his game has upped a notch.
"Having played for different teams over the past two years has obviously helped me develop as a player and I am still learning as any player tends to do particularly after having played a season with New England. I'm really looking forward to stretching my ability now and see how I can bring something of value to the national team," added John who was last attached to Longford Town in the Irish League and then spent some time training with Birmingham City alongside Stern John before signing the MLS deal in May.
He also shared some good words on the local-based players he has teamed up with so far with the likes of Denzil Theobald, Silvio Spann, Angus Eve, Leslie "Tiger" Fitzpatrick, Derek King, Marlon Rojas, Keyeno Thomas, Jerren Nixon and Errol McFarlane ampong others in the fray.
"So far I've felt very good in training. Settling back with the rest of the guys was never going to be a problem. They are all also looking sharp which is a plus and everyone is anticipating what is to come starting with Wednesday's match. They all want the chance to stake a claim for a place in the team and there's a lot of football to come which means there's a lot to happen still in this campaign," added the former Presentation College, San Fernando captain who is likely to also be in the team for the prelims of the Digicel Cup scheduled for November 24-28 here with Grenada, Puerto Rico and Surinam also taking part.
Meantime, defender Marvin Andrews was in action on Sunday as Glasgow Rangers stopped Hibernian 1-0 and he will now arrive home on Monday along with China-based utility player Anthony Rougier. The likes of Brent Sancho, Clayton Ince, Hector Sam, Dennis Lawrence and Kenwyne Jones were all scheduled in on Sunday evening and will join in training on Monday morning at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
"We will have the full compliment of players a couple days in before the game and it's important that while it's a short time we need to maximize the sessions. A win is the order of the day and definitely I think a good performance is what we are looking for against the Vincentians. The key to our game will obviously be a disciplined approach and ensuring that at no time we drop off and allow them to have the better of the exchanges," St Clair said on the weekend.