With Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard hitting top form for Manchester United and Chelsea respectively, it has been an encouraging weekend for Fabio Capello, although nothing may have pleased the England manager quite as much as the sight of David James excelling in goal for Portsmouth once again.

Having been restored to the England team by Capello for the Italian’s first match in charge this month, the 2-1 friendly victory over Switzerland at Wembley, James’s confidence could not be higher and it showed in the FA Cup fifth-round tie against Preston North End at Deepdale yesterday.

The Portsmouth goalkeeper was outstanding, saving a second-half penalty from Simon Whaley and making a string of other stops to keep Preston at bay before Harry Redknapp’s team booked a place in the quarter-finals when Darren Carter scored an own goal in the dying seconds.

Goalkeeper has proved a problematic position for England in recent times, but Redknapp believes that there is not a better custodian around and is convinced James will be Capello’s No 1 come the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa, even though he will be only a few weeks shy of his 40th birthday by then.

“He is different class,” Redknapp said. “Hopefully, the England recall will help him to take his game to even greater heights, but, for sure, he will play in the World Cup.

“In the last couple of weeks, he has been in great form, although I have to say ever since he walked into Portsmouth he has been in another league. He is such a perfectionist. He works hard on the training ground every day and he’s always studying videos of himself after every game. He’s as good a professional as I’ve come across.”

Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly keen to sign James at the end of the season, but Redknapp is adamant that his goalkeeper is not going anywhere. “I don’t think so. He has got another two years left on his contract after this season,” Redknapp said.

The Portsmouth manager expected that James would save Whaley’s 60th-minute penalty. “When they got the penalty, you are quite confident he is going to save it, he is that good,” he said. “You wouldn’t want anyone else in goal in that situation. He is so imposing that their player must have thought, ‘I’ve got to hit a really good penalty here to score’.”

James is clearly relishing his new lease of life. “I’m loving it at the moment,” he said. “I’m happy to contribute, but goals win games. It was a tough game and they were possibly the better side, but, saying that, their keeper has made some good saves himself, so we weren’t completely out of it.”