BLACKBURN Rovers midfielder David Dunn is looking to lead from the front and give the England under-21 side a winning start to their European Championship qualifying campaign tonight.

Dunn has been confirmed as Frank Lampard's replacement as England captain for the clash against Germany at Derby County's Pride Park.

He will therefore collect his sixth cap and lead his country out for the second time after first doing the job in August's friendly win over Georgia.

"It's a great honour even to be picked for England so to be named as captain is brilliant," said Dunn.

In line with the senior team, the under-21s face a double header against Germany and then Finland next Tuesday night with Dunn looking to get straight up-and-running against the Germans, who have already played and won a Group Nine game.

He said: "It's a two-year campaign but we start with two games inside a week so we will be looking to get as many points as we can to get off to a decent start.

"I think we will certainly be looking to get three points out of it tonight.

"There is always a bit of rivalry in Germany, England games going right back to the World Cup final, so we will be looking to put one over them.

"I don't know too much about them, although we've seen them on a few videos, and the coaching staff know more about them.

"But if we perform to the best of our ability we can just about beat any team." Some 24,000 tickets have already been sold for the game and Dunn, who feels he has been doing "alright" for Rovers so far this season, is looking forward to the backing of a partisan following.

"It will be great to have a big crowd behind us," he added.

Dunn's Ewood Park team-mate James Thomas is also in under-21 qualifying action tonight when he wins his 13th-cap for Wales against Norway at Swansea's Vetch Field.

And the young striker goes into the tie boosted by a his recent goalscoring breakthrough into the Rovers first-team.

He said: "It has been good to be given a chance. I've been at Blackburn for six years now and it has been tough getting a break.

"Chances have been few and far between for me and I didn't really think it was ever going to come. I was beginning to think about moving on.

"Now I've had a good start to the season, I've had my break and got into the side and scored three goals.

"I know I played well and that's a bonus. I was rested last weekend because Matt Jansen came back, and I expected that.

"But I've been in the first team now and can't wait for another chance. My call-up this season came out of the blue, but I got my chance and took it, scoring a few goals. "I couldn't have done much more but now I just hope the boss keeps giving games.

"I've got one year left after this one on my contract, so it's make or break now for me. I just hope I can impress people enough now I'm getting the opportunity to play."

On the senior international front, out-of-favour Rovers defender Christian Dailly will step back into the spotlight with a key role for Scotland in their double-header which starts at San Marino tomorrow and then takes them to Croatia next Wednesday.

The Scots are looking to build on their opening win over Latvia and Dailly admitted: "The two games couldn't be much more different -- from sleepy San Marino to an intimidating atmosphere in Zagreb.

"But to be honest we have not really thought about Croatia so far because Craig Brown's preparations have been all about San Marino.

"I think that's the right way to do it because we have got to give San Marino total respect if we want to get six points out of six. We fly out to Croatia on Sunday morning and that's when we can get our heads round the next game.

"The last minute goal in Latvia gives us a huge boost because to come to this game with one point would have put pressure on us."