When it comes to grabbing anything with both hands you would expect goalkeepers to be at an advantage, what with the big gloves and all that practice.

Opportunities to challenge Jordan Pickford as England's number one however tend to slip through.

Maybe modern keepers spend too much time learning to punch things clear or passing it about at the back to claim anything cleanly nowadays.

Dean Henderson has seemed close at times. Nick Pope and Aaron Ramsdale had their moments. Sam Johnstone's and Alex McCarthy's were more fleeting.

In Prague against Czech Republic, the chance belongs to James Trafford for the second time in four days and it can only be positive for England if he can deliver a performance to create at least some semblance of competition for the No1 shirt.

Pickford's dominance is stressed by this nugget of trivia doing the rounds after Saturday's 3-2 defeat by Spain: On each of the last five occasions England have conceded three or more, Pickford has been absent.

Henderson was in goal for two of them, Pope and Ramsdale for one each and now Trafford, although he did at least emerge with some credit from the Spain game.

There were smart early saves when Thomas Tuchel's team were in a mess and confidence to demand the ball at his feet, although England's young keeper must take his share of the collective blame for the fraught opening phase at Wembley.

Even if he was under instruction to play with risk and invite the Spanish press by delaying the release of his passes, the decisions he made under pressure did nothing at all to suggest his presence in goal would offer a more soothing experience than Pickford's trademark hyperactivity.

In Prague on Tuesday it will likely be a very different type of contest.

The Czechs have a new Spanish coach. Santi Denia spent 14 years in charge of various age levels of Spain youth teams including the U21s beaten by an England side including Trafford in the 2023 Euros final but are entering a new reset phase and are not expected to possess the slick cohesion and authority of the world champions.

Perhaps that was the appeal of this two-game strategy as Tuchel studies Trafford in two very different international environments. Once at home against the best around, the other away in a place where England will represent a prized scalp.

Tuchel has confirmed that unless something goes awry, Pickford will return against Croatia in Rijeka on Saturday and for the return against Czech Republic at Wembley, which will take his haul to 93 caps.

At 32, there is time on his side to cruise past Peter Shilton's 125-cap record if he can keep swatting aside the young challengers.

Pickford has proved a very capable England goalkeeper, matured into the role and is without doubt better for all the experience but his place has rarely been under serious threat.

Trafford must come with other ideas. He must dislodge his mate. His stars have belatedly aligned, playing regular Premier League football in a strong team with a commitment to defend properly.

This is more than half the battle because all jokes about missed opportunities aside they are truly scarce for homegrown goalkeepers in elite competition.

He rode out a difficult season in the Premier League with Burnley to excel as they bounced back from relegation by winning the Championship only to be set back again when Pep Guardiola lured him back to Manchester City then swerved to sign Gianluigi Donnarumma and relegate Trafford to his domestic cup keeper and cover.

'I won two trophies,' replied Trafford in a flash when reminded of this. 'It obviously wasn't ideal how it panned out but looking back I got two trophies to my name, so you take the positives and you play the cards you're dealt.'

Even so, this time last year he was playing for City in Carabao Cup ties at Huddersfield and Swansea, which was hardly ever going to convince Tuchel to wave him in past Pickford and Henderson of Crystal Palace, who is missing from this squad through injury.

At 23, Trafford is the same age Pickford was when he first broke in and made a debut against Germany in November 2017 four days before Joe Hart won his final cap, then won the spring auditions with Jack Butland and Pope to start in the 2018 World Cup.

Pickford seized his moment. Can Trafford do the same?