HE is known as "angry kid" by his teammates on account of his short temper but Alty youngster Lewis Chalmers is anything but at the moment.

The 20-year-old is set to become the latest member of an elite group of players at the club after being named in the 16-man squad for the England non-league representative team's match against Holland next Wednesday - and he couldn't be happier.

Only 12 players in the Robins' history have been capped by the England non-league side, now known as the National Game XI. Should Chalmers become the lucky 13th at Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium next week it would cap a remarkable rise to prominence this season for the former Alty youth player.

He told SAM Sport: "It's been a very good month for me, in fact it's been a good season.

"In the summer I had a long chat with Graham (Heathcote) about what I could improve and he said he thought my fitness wasn't up to scratch.

"So I just worked on that loads over the summer and it's paid off so far. I'm just happy that I'm in the team every week and that I'm playing well.

"The call-up is a sign of achievement for me and for the players around me because I'll play better if they're playing well too.

"I've learnt a lot from the likes of Colin Little and Steve Bushell. I take on board any advice that the senior players can pass on to me because it's still a learning curve."

Chalmers' learning curve has been particularly sharp, however.

He has already started as many senior games this season as he did in the whole of the previous campaign and has surely got to be a candidate for the most improved player in the Conference.

But the England call-up still came as a major shock for the modest midfielder, who is currently studying a sports development degree at the University of Bolton.

"The first I heard about the call-up was from Graham and it came as a massive shock," he said.

"He phoned me and asked me how I thought I had been playing. I said I had been pretty happy with the way things are going and that's when he told me I had a call-up.

"At first I didn't know what he meant by a call-up and even after he had explained, it didn't really sink in until the next day.

"I had just been concentrating on doing a job for Alty so this was a massive bonus.

"But now that I'm there I want to prove I'm good enough to get into that team. We meet up for training in Nottingham next week and I just hope I can do enough to convince them I deserve to be there."

Although Chalmers remains happy and settled at Moss Lane, he still has his eye on a professional contract.

After playing for big name sides like Manchester United, Manchester City and Oldham Athletic as a teenager, he still believes he has a point to prove and is confident he can make his mark in the football league.

He said: "I'm really happy at Alty at the moment but eventually I would like to play for a league club. That's always in the back of my mind, it's every footballer's goal.

"I think the team we have at Alty at the moment can do well though. We still have quite a few players who are relatively young so we have potential to do establish ourselves in this league over the next few years."