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Roy Hodgson went to St Mary’s to watch the potential future backbone of his England team: Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and... Morgan Schneiderlin.

Southampton's French midfielder scored the opening goal of a crazy encounter with Norwich - and then said he is considering switching allegiances after getting ignored by Didier Deschamps and Les Bleus.

Schneiderlin, who moved to the South Coast in August 2008, is now eligible for England under the five-year residency rule which could one day allow Manchester United starlet Adnan Januzaj to wear the Three Lions.

The 24-year-old former France Under-21 international is no Januzaj or Diego Costa, who recently made his Spain debut after playing for Brazil.

But when asked about switching to England, Schneiderlin said: “Never say never. Don’t give me any time limit, I’ll just see.

"Of course, it’s frustrating (not to play for France) but I just need to keep focused and finish as high as possible and then we’ll see after the World Cup.

"It’s a dream for everyone to play for his country - for me, too.”

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Hodgson also saw his existing England stars Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez score for the Saints - and Gaston Ramirez, of World Cup group rivals Uruguay, set up the home side's first two goals on his first start since New Year’s Day.

The Saints were strolling at 3-0 after 72 minutes but Chris Hughton’s triple substitution - and home sloppiness - inspired a fightback.

Johan Elmander scored his first Premier League goal for the Canaries and Robert Snodgrass set up a tense finale before sub Sam Gallagher netted in injury time.

Lambert, who came on after 55 minutes, said: “I think we are more relieved than happy that we have won that game.”

Norwich’s fifth consecutive away league defeat came despite scoring twice for the first time since December 7 - their last win on the road.

It is not good enough for a club which invested in three high-profile strikers last summer.

The furious reaction of the travelling Canaries fans to Hughton’s changes showed this is not a happy club on or off the pitch.

They are still four points above the drop zone - but Sunderland have three games in hand and Norwich finish the season against Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Norwich.

The next four matches - starting at home to Sunderland on Saturday - are crucial.

“They are massive games,” said Snodgrass. “It is time for heroes. We need to try and do it against Sunderland.

(Image: Christopher Lee)

“It is just not happening away from home right now. If you put performances like that in, it is definitely not going to happen. I really can’t put my finger on it but we will keep going because we’re in a relegation fight down there.

“We could go down so we just need to roll our sleeves up and keep going. We weren’t good enough from the first whistle to the last. We let ourselves down and let the fans down. We need to pick ourselves up and go again.

“Everybody needs to stick together. You’re not going to get anything out of a relegation dogfight if you don’t stick together so we need to do that as a team.”

Hughton is charming and media-savvy, but he knows only results can save him. If his fate is not already decided.

“It’s a tough period,” he admitted. “Against Southampton we were nowhere near good enough.”