WREXHAM defender Carl Tremarco said he was both surprised and delighted by the news yesterday that he has been called up by England C manager Paul Fairclough for a friendly international against Bosnia & Herzegovina next month.

It proved the perfect pick-me-up for the Dragons defender who was still brooding on the disappointing Bank Holiday 1-1 draw with Altrincham, in which Jefferson Louis’ strike rescued a point after Chris Senior had opened the scoring.

He said: “It’s a huge surprise because I was not even aware there was a semi-professional England team, let alone one that plays in international tournaments.

“I regard the call-up as a reward for my form so far this season although it’s a good job no-one from the set-up was at Altrincham.”

Next month’s friendly, in Sarajevo on Tuesday, September 16 is a warm-up match for England’s International Challenge Trophy Group A decider in Italy in November and Fairclough has decided to select an under-23 side in preparation for that match.

“We have lost a number of players from the squad which has taken us to within a point of qualifying for the International Challenge Trophy final,” said Fairclough.

“This fixture gives me an ideal opportunity to look at some new players prior to the Italy game later in the year.”

Tremarco’s Racecourse colleague Darran Kempson has been named as one of the stand-by players for the Bosnia match, which will be the full-back’s first experience of playing abroad.

“It’s a great opportunity for me,” said Tremarco. “I would love to be involved for the England game in Italy as well so it’s up to me to show that I’m worth my place in the squad.

“I need to continue to work hard and try to impress the right people, and we’ll see where that takes me.”

Reflecting on Monday’s Moss Lane experience, which extended Wrexham’s winless run on the road to three games, the 22-year-old defender added: “It was not one of our better performances, that’s for sure.

“Too many of us under-performed on the day, which is not acceptable to the manager or the fans and we realise that.

“Sitting in the dressing room afterwards we tried to put our finger on what went wrong and obviously we did not get the ball down and play or pass as we know we can.

“No team will be at their best in every game, but if we are going to do anything this season we have to be better than that against sides such as Altrincham.

“I don’t mean them any disrespect because they played very well and possibly deserved more than a point from the game, but the fact is we know we have missed a golden opportunity to register that important first away win and pick up three points.

“But we just didn’t click on the pitch and we have to back into training tomorrow and work that bit harder to make sure we get it right next time.”

Wrexham have an early opportunity to do just that in Saturday’s visit to Salisbury City, whose Bank Holiday victory at Torquay United took them to the top of the Blue Square Premier.

Dragons manager Brian Little kept his players in the dressing room for half-an-hour following the disappointing draw, in which he said only skipper Tom Kearney had emerged with any kind of performance.

“They (Salisbury) will be flying and full of confidence,” admitted Tremarco. “They had a great win yesterday so there will be absolutely no complacency on our part. It’s obviously a tough place to go but we genuinely believe we are capable of doing very well in this league.

“Salisbury would be the ideal place for us to start proving that and with them being top there is no better incentive for us.”