Jack Collison goes head-to-head with his West Ham pal Mark Noble intent on helping Wales Under-21s produce a shock by knocking England out of the UEFA Championship play-offs.

Collison, 20, sees the more experienced Noble as one of the main obstacles to his progress into the Hammers' first-team. And the Ninian Park clash on Friday gives him the chance to make a point to his club-mate.

Collison said: "I am looking forward to playing against Mark, we get on well and there has been plenty of banter between us since the draw paired Wales with England.

"One day I would want to be playing alongside Mark in the same midfield, so this is my chance to show how well I can compete against him."

Both Collison and Noble have seen a managerial change at West Ham this season, with Gianfranco Zola replacing Alan Curbishley. And Collison has been very impressed.

He said: "A new manager has come in at West Ham so I need to get my head down and try to impress him.

"He has been brilliant, a breath of fresh air. Training has been very sharp, and he is very bright and approachable with the boys, a lot of one-on-one stuff and I am really enjoying it.

"I am not going to slag off Curbishley because he gave me my debut,. He was good in his own ways and Zola is good in his ways.

"They both have their own style but this is a new experience and new challenge for me.

"I have spoken to Zola and he said that I need to be patient and wait for my chance, and I will get one.

"So at the moment I will work hard, and these two matches against England are a great opportunity for me to impress.

"Obviously there has a lot of banter going on at the training ground with Mark and I know his game very well.

"So it will be very interesting when we face each other. Obviously he is a rival for a midfield place at West Ham, but I train with him every day so I know a lot about him.

"Training has been very interesting under Zola. He has taken some players aside and helped them on an individual basis.

"With me, he said that I need to work on some technical aspects of my game and long passing. He did 15 minutes with me, and all things like that will help my game.

"I saw him take Freddie Sears aside and help him with his finishing."

Collison also has Wales skipper Craig Bellamy as a club-mate, and said: "He was in most days over the summer trying to get fit, even when the other players were off.

"He had a setback in pre-season and now he is raring to go. He scored a lot of goals in pre-season and looked very sharp.

"He is great on the training pitch and is a really good professional.

"The set-back came for him at a bad time. But he is always there for advice for younger players, we just need to watch him train, the extra sessions he does, and he is always right in what he does.

"He keeps you on your toes in training and tells you the good things and bad things you do to help you improve your game. He is outspoken and people respect him what that."