Marcus Rashford form 'no surprise' to England U21s boss Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate is confident Marcus Rashford has given Sam Allardyce "food for thought" with his hat-trick for England's Under-21s on Tuesday night.

The Manchester United striker scored three times for Southgate's side as they hammered Norway 6-1 to move a step closer to Euro 2017.

England boss Allardyce watched from the stands in Colchester on Tuesday as Rashford scored twice before completing his hat-trick with a cool second-half penalty.

Rashford hits hat-trick

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Rashford was left out of Allardyce's first senior squad for their 1-0 win in Slovakia on Sunday after playing at Euro 2016 and scoring on his debut against Australia in May.

He also scored the winner for United against Hull City in their most recent Premier League game and goes into Saturday's Manchester derby in strong goalscoring form.

England host Malta and go to Slovenia in their next World Cup Qualifiers next month while the U21s head to Kazakhstan and welcome Bosnia needing just a win to reach Euro 2017 and Southgate knows Rashford will be in Allardyce's thoughts.

"I'll speak to Sam in the next couple of days, I'm sure it's given him food for thought. But he'll be pleased with some of the performances of his players on Sunday," he said.

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"What we saw all week [from Rashford] we saw tonight so I wasn't surprised in any way. I don't think anyone can rubbish the experience, the key is if they come down, they get to play and put on a show like that.

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"You could see he was very comfortable in the environment and that is credit to everyone involved. It's important to us that players express themselves and play to the best of their ability. I don't know if that was his best but if there is more to come then that is very exciting."

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Nathaniel Chalobah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Lewis Baker were also on target and England are now two points clear in Group 9 needing one win to reach next year's tournament in Poland.

Rashford said: "It means a lot [that Allardyce was here]. It's the England seniors, there is a new manager and they are doing well. Everyone is working hard to get into that side, so it was important that he was here to see our development."

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