Rio's England are ready to swagger

England will make history if they come away from Belarus tonight with all three points having never won the opening four games of a qualifying campaign before.

More significantly, it will put them firmly on course to finishing top of Group Six and booking their place at the next World Cup in South Africa with the kind of ease that has eluded them so frequently in the past.

Ferdinand has grown used to winning regularly with Manchester United in a team able to express themselves on the pitch more readily due to the confidence gained by regular success.

Yet his experiences at international level have been much more fraught and he believes the constant struggle to qualify for major tournaments is one of the main reasons behind their inability to play the kind of fantasy football capable of winning trophies.

He said: "If we can qualify easier than we have in the past it will help us in our bid to develop as a team. In recent years we have always been playing the last four games under pressure and it is hard to play great free-flowing football when the stakes are very high.

"Games become a lot more result driven. Obviously that remains important but if we can get a good cushion for ourselves we can work on other things.

"None of the campaigns I have been involved in have ever been easy. It is always pressure, pressure, pressure and going into the last game knowing it's do or die.

"Hopefully, we can put ourselves in a commanding position and sustain it. That will help us play with a lot more confidence, with a swagger and be a lot more free. We are aiming to be more consistent and win games."

Since Ferdinand made his international debut in 1997, England have only failed to reach Euro 2008, but have made a habit of qualifying late.

In the defender's previous World Cup campaigns, David Beckham booked their place at the 2002 tournament in injury time of the last game against Greece with a memorable equaliser from a free- kick. It wasn't much better four years later as it took victory over Poland in the final match to secure top place in the group.

Their luck finally ran out under Steve McClaren and they paid the price by missing out on the European Championships in the summer.

But Ferdinand, skipper again tonight in the absence of the injured John Terry, has seen a wind of change blown in by new Italian hardliner Fabio Capello. Gone are the days of celebrity status that was enjoyed by the players under Sven- Goran Eriksson and then McClaren and also out are the WAGs who, according to Ferdinand, turned the World Cup in Germany into a "circus".

He said: "If I'm honest, we became a bit of a circus in terms of the whole WAG situation.

"It seems like there was a big show around the whole England squad. It was like watching a theatre unfolding and football almost became a secondary element to the main event.

"People were worrying more about what they were wearing and where they were going, rather than the England football team. That then transposed itself into the team.

"This regime is very water-tight and it feels as if we're going in the right direction now.

"It is still a bit early to be looking at the table and gloating.

"It's great to be top of the league now but it will be even better if we are still top of the league after four games having got two of our hardest games in Croatia and Belarus away from home, out of the way.

"I don't want to speak too soon, but you can see we're at the start of something and, hopefully, there'll be bigger rewards than what we've had in the past."

It is perhaps no coincidence that Ferdinand's confidence has risen under an international manager that reminds him of the one he enjoys playing under at club level in Sir Alex Ferguson. He said: "You see a good satisfaction with Fergie when we win. Then again, at the same time, you can see he's still looking to the next trophy he wants to win.

"You learn more about each other when you're losing and not doing well.

"It'll be like that with the manager we have here, too. When we win games, the manager here is still likely to point out the things we're not doing well or done wrong."