THE CYNICS may have poked fun at Luke Ballinger when he first stepped on to a futsal court but the Westbury man has definitely had the last laugh after becoming the first England player to hit 50 goals for the national team last weekend.

The 26-year-old, originally from Seend, who has made 87 appearances for England in the small-sided version of the beautiful game, fired home a hat-trick as the Three Lions beat Sweden 7-3 at London’s Copper Box Arena on Saturday, with his third and final goal bringing up his half-century landmark.

England’s friendly victory took place in front of a bumper crowd of 1,430, the highest-ever for a futsal international in this country.

And Ballinger, who has also captained his country, is proud of the role he has played in helping the sport grow on these shores.

“I’ve played for eight seasons and when I first started, a few people laughed at me, but you can see how much the sport has grown in this country since then,” said Ballinger, who plays for Bristol City in the FA National Futsal Super League.

“It was an absolutely fantastic venue.

“The interest has got so much bigger and maybe there will be 2,000 or 3,000 people there in a few years’ time.

“Fifty goals was one of the targets that I set myself a while ago and it’s great because I think the next-highest in the list of scorers only has about 25.

“It was great to get it with a hat-trick too.

“I think my next target is to get to 100 caps. I’ve got 13 more games to go and if we can get through the World Cup qualifiers later this year, then it should only take about a year.”

Former Melksham Town and Frome Town ace Ballinger, who is in the process of moving to Westbury, works as a mentor at Melksham Oak School and currently plies his trade in the 11-a-side game for Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division Chippenham Town.

Langley Burrell’s George Nash, who plays alongside Ballinger for Bristol City, as well as for Toolstation League Chippenham Park, was also part of the England team who lost 3-1 to Sweden in the first of their two friendlies last weekend.