Kidderminster Harriers striker Matthew Barnes-Homer has set his sights on winning his first England C cap later this month and leading his club’s resurgence in the league.

The 23-year-old is now a fully fledged member of the England C squad who play Poland’s under-23 side in Grodzisk Wielkopolski next Tuesday night, after being called up and taken off the standby list today.

It’s the Harriers top scorer’s first time in the full set-up after he was an unused member of a summer squad, and is as close to a full cap as he has come of yet.

But the seven-goal hitman’s first focus is on the next task in hand at club level, namely the visit of league leaders Oxford to Aggborough on Saturday.

Yet the former Wolves youngster is daring to dream of what is ahead, as he believes the team will come good over the pivotal Christmas schedule and then kick on to even better things in the second-half of the campaign.

Mark Yates’ men sit ninth after missing out on the play-off’s with a last day defeat last season, and Barnes-Homer is adamant those demons can be exorcised for good this time.

The striker said: “I feel that by Christmas time and the second part of the season, we could be a real force. We can make the play-off’s at the end of the season, I believe that, because we have a strong enough squad to do it.

“To be fair, we have played some really good stuff this season, and most of the big teams we have faced have been played off the park. We have made a couple of errors and gave some sloppy goals away, but that happens in every team. Everybody is there to learn from their mistakes.

“The lads are sharp and we are not scared of the bigger teams. We have Oxford on Saturday – and we can beat them.”