STEVE Naylor starred as England gained gold at the Home Countries International in Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Naylor, a late call-up for the event, was over the moon at being the third points-scorer home for England as he made a fairytale debut in a national vest.

Naylor, pictured below in his England vest, finished sixth out of 28, clocking 34mins 31secs over a 10.8km course.

With three of a four-man team to score, Naylor’s position helped England clinch gold by 19 points, ahead of Scotland.

And that was even without the shorts he likes to wear when he runs – but was not all-owed to do so.

He said: “The whole weekend was a great experience.

“I was able to spend a lot of time with runners who have represented England before and who have probably been running since they were about 13-years-old.

“The plan, I suppose, was to try and run a similar race as I did at the Inter-Counties by not going off too fast.

“I had to respect the fact that some of the front runners may be too quick for me over the first lap.

“I had to get used to a few little rituals. My lucky Sheffield Wednesday shorts didn’t have a part to play, although they still came with me to Antrim,” he joked.

Naylor found himself in 12th place after the first lap, about 20 metres behind the leaders.

On lap two, he found his rhythm and pushed up to eighth by the end of the second lap.

But he managed to main-tain a steady pace on the third lap and briefly got up to fifth place, before being overtaken by Paul Richardson (Midlands).

The final lap saw a three-way tussle for fourth place, with Eddie McGinley, Naylor and Richardson neck-and-neck.

Only two seconds separated the three of them at the finish line as Naylor crossed the line in sixth place.

The race was won by England’s Jonathan Pepper in 34.12, with Adam Hickey finishing third in 34.27.

Naylor made up the winning trio.

He added: “The next runner was nearly 50 seconds behind me, so I’m pleased that I ran so strongly.

“Coming sixth and helping England to gold just added more jubilation to the day.

“I gather the team manager felt I’d exceeded his expectations.

“I think some of the others were surprised when I told them it was only my ninth cross country race.

“If this story goes no further, then I’d be very happy. I felt very proud to wear the England vest and know that I gave it my best.”