SAM ALLARDYCE has been urged to keep an eye on the Championship in a bid to get England on track for World Cup glory by the Champions League winner managing in the second tier of English football.

Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez, who has won trophies at the highest level for more than a decade, is trying to lead a promotion charge at St James’ Park and could claim top spot this afternoon by overcoming Wolves at St James’ Park.

The Magpies’ 6-0 win at Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday night was as convincing as the scoreline suggests but there were notable individual displays too, with Ayoze Perez and Jonjo Shelvey two to have particularly impressed.

Shelvey, a former England Under-21s international, has already earned six caps for his country but the last of those arrived against France in November last year; he lost his way after that for Swansea and on Tyneside.

There are also a number of other young English players in the Championship worth keeping an eye on. Fulham’s Cauley Woodrow, Huddersfield’s Kasey Painter, Reading’s John Swift, Leeds’ (on loan from Swansea) Matt Grimes, Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish and Wolves youngsters Kortney Hause and Domini Iorfa are among those to have caught the eye.

Benitez, only seven matches into his reign as a manager in the second tier, thinks Allardyce wouldn’t be doing his job if he wasn’t looking beyond a Premier League obsessed with foreign talent.

The Newcastle manager said: "You have a lot of media, TV and people at the game who can give you reports, so if someone scores a goal like Jonjo did at QPR and everybody is talking about him, then I'm sure he (Allardyce) will have the information to see if Jonjo can stay at this level or even any of the other players can.

"If Jonjo can keep his consistency, if he can keep working as hard as he was working and playing at the level he has been playing, then why not? And not just him. Any player.

"The Championship is a very good level. There are a lot of good English players in this league. You don't have too many in the Premier League.

“Every year in every country - it's the same in Spain - everybody is complaining, saying there are too many foreign players coming and we don't have any space for the English players. You have less in the Premier League, but you have more in the Championship.”

Shelvey is playing with confidence for Newcastle, having initially looked like he could be leaving in the summer after losing his place under Benitez.

The turnaround has impressed the Spaniard and he has been delighted with the progress of his team, which has won six matches in a row and kept five consecutive clean sheets.

Despite having no fresh injury concerns, Benitez has admitted he will still make changes from the team that blew away QPR because he feels the need to keep his squad fresh. Daryl Murphy and Archaf Lazaar, signed from Ipswich and Palermo last month, will have to wait until the EFL Cup meeting with Wolves on Wednesday to make their bows.

Benitez said: "To play the same team you cannot play with this intensity, with this level, for one season. And especially when there are so many games. When you have players playing too many games in a row, you have to change.

“It depends on the positions, it depends on the players, but I told them the other day: listen, I'd prefer 60 minutes from someone and then after 60 minutes if you say you cannot play anymore, that's fine.”

He is not even certain whether he will keep Perez, who turned in his best display in a Newcastle shirt against QPR, in the starting line-up against a Wolves side smarting from a 4-0 defeat at Wolves.

Benitez said: “Ayoze is stronger than he seems, but I can agree that physically to cope with the intensity of the Championship there was a question mark.

“But he showed the other day that he can do it because he is clever, so when someone has quality and has clever movement, he doesn't need to go and challenge and tackle every time. Sometimes the cleverest players don't tackle, they just go to the right places at the right time.”

Newcastle striker Dwight Gayle’s strike against Reading was named the Sky Bet goal of the month for the Championship yesterday.