Gavin James hopes that making his international debut will be the springboard he needs to force his way into the professional ranks and follow in the footsteps of former Marlow midfielder Ben Gladwin.

Gladwin was turning out in the Hellenic Premier Division – the league James won with Flackwell Heath last season – as recently as 2013 before his form caught the eye of League One outfit Swindon Town.

After impressing en route to reaching the League One play-off final in his first full season as a professional footballer, QPR came calling for Gladwin earlier this summer and stumped up £1.5 million for his services.

James netted 38 times for the Heathens as they romped to the title last season and after getting word that St Vincent and the Grenadines were on the hunt for players the 26-year-old won his first two caps for the Caribbean island, which is the birthplace of his parents, as they progressed to the next phase of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup with an away goals win against Guyana.

The striker, who is a trainee teacher at Chesham Grammar School, admitted that his first foray into international football, where he played against the likes of Bolton’s Neil Danns, has left him with hopes of playing professionally.

“It’s like I’ve been given a second chance,” explained James.

“I played in the youth team at Wycombe and had a few reserve games but I got released by Paul Lambert and at the time I thought it was over.

“Then I was at Maidenhead and the manager was saying that he thought he could move me on and I’d become a professional or whatever and then I broke my leg playing for them.

“Since then it’s sort of been going backwards with my confidence getting knocked, but the last season at Flackwell has bought that back and then going out there [to St Vincent] and playing on the same pitch as professionals makes you wonder how far I can push myself to go.

“I played with the likes of them and I haven’t been out of my depth, so we’ll just see what happens.”

The example of players such as Gladwin offers hope to James that there is still time left for him to carve out a career in the professional game with the likes of Charlie Austin, who played for Southern League side Poole Town, and Che Adams, who was plucked from Ilkeston by Sheffield United in 2014, having been pulled from non-league.

“Fingers crossed it does,” said James when asked if he feels his exploits with St Vincent will attract interest from clubs higher up the football pyramid.

“Players at our level have gone on to do well. People like Ryan Bird (who played for Burnham until 2013) signed pro, and Ben Gladwin who was playing in the Hellenic a few years ago and he’s just been signed by QPR.

“There are some good players at our level but it’s just about getting the exposure and getting the chance. I think this has given me a little bit of exposure which has helped me out.”

James isn’t yet sure where he will be playing his football next season after Flackwell were forced to turn down promotion having been told they would be put into the South and West Division, meaning they faced trips to a far afield as Devon on the weekend – something which was not financially possible for the club.

The former Bucks New University student, who also previously attended Amersham and Wycombe College, was in the Caribbean when he learned of Heath’s dilemma and admitted it tarnished their title winning campaign.

He said: “I wasn’t keeping on top of it and it wasn’t until after the Guyana game that I went on Twitter, had a look and saw that they rejected it (promotion).

“It puts a downer on the season that we had as a group because we were by far the best team in that league and we felt that going up into the next league we would have done fine and maybe been able to challenge because teams that go up often do well. When I heard the news it was just a bit of a shame really.”