Alex Harrison is chasing an English Schools under-18s goals record and plans to dedicate it to his late friend and teammate Marc Lucchi.

The striker from Eastbourne helped his country lift the Centenary Shield with four goals to equal the record set by Jack Lester (South Yorkshire) eight years ago.

Harrison scored one and made two in a 4-3 win over Scotland in Sheffield before netting in a 1-0 victory against the Republic of Ireland at Lowestoft.

He had already scored against Northern Ireland and Wales.

Harrison, a former Willingdon pupil, now goes to Finland for two internationals on May 3 and 5.

He said: "I knew Marc from college (West Suffolk). He got killed in a road accident recently. I will go to Finland confident of getting the record. And when I get it I will dedicate it to him.

"I had to decide between playing for England or going to Marc's funeral. But Marc, I know, would have wanted me to play the game because it was vital to England winning the Shield. So I put some black tape around my sock and scored. It was after that goal I started to think about the record. I looked it up in the English Schools' FA book. At under-15s, Rod Thomas was top with 14 and Michael Owen got 12. But at under-18s I could see the record was achievable.

"Then I got one of the best goals of my career after coming on as a substitute and knew I'd equalled it. The ball came over my shoulder and I volleyed it over their giant goalkeeper from the edge of the area.

"I had had a chat with the England manager (Malcolm Herd) about why he had relegated me to the bench and he said he wanted a taller striker to combat their big guys. Afterwards I joked with him about it. But it certainly geed me up. Having the captaincy taken away from me for the Shield matches helped because I could concentrate on my goalscoring.

"I've been quite successful. I've scored nine in nine for England, including non-internationals."