13.37 Thu Nov 16 2006
Frank Lampard is calling on his England team-mates to take confidence from their much-improved performance in Holland when they resume their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign in March.
Steve McClaren's men were held to a 1-1 draw in Amsterdam after Rafael Van Der Vaart's 86th-minute equaliser cancelled out Wayne Rooney's 37th-minute opener, his first international goal since last November's 3-2 win over Argentina.
But they looked more assured in their first action since last month's 2-0 defeat in Croatia, which has seen them fall out of the automatic qualifying spots to third place in Euro 2008 qualifying Group E following Croatia's 4-3 win in Israel and Russia's 2-0 victory in Macedonia.
And Lampard told reporters: "We put in a performance which hopefully will be looked upon favourably and it is important we take that into the European Championship qualifiers next year.
"To come to Holland and play like we did, being only a few minutes away from winning against a top side, really speaks volumes for the team and we can take heart from that.
"Of course, Israel is a long way away and we will all go back to our clubs now for a couple of months. But it is evident we are in better shape than we were in Croatia last month. We didn't play so well out there. We missed a couple of players there and we weren't on top form. Here we showed we are edging more towards top form."
England, who have picked up seven points from their first four Group E games, will head to Israel next year three points adrift of leaders Croatia.