England's players pleaded for patience today while Fabio Capello declared he was pleased with his team despite their 1-0 defeat by France.

French goalkeeper Gregory Coupet had no need to make a save but England's captain for the night, Rio Ferdinand, summed up the mood of the squad when he said: "There are some positives we can take out of the game.

"I thought we passed the ball very well, although we didn't create as many chances as we would have liked. We did get in dangerous positions, though, and kept the ball quite well for long periods, especially in the first half.

"In the second half, we had some half-chances and with a bit of luck we could have scored. It was a steady improvement on the game against the Swiss, even if we did lose.

"The new manager has come in and not had long to put across all his ideas, although he is very thorough about what he wants from us and assertive in what he demands of us as individuals and as a team. To implement all that, we are going to need time."

Aston Villa midfield star Gareth Barry also called for patience when he said: "Defeat is always hard to take but overall, especially in the first half, I thought there was a lot to take from the game.

"The manager said afterwards that he was obviously disappointed with defeat but quite happy with the way he felt we moved to the next step after the Swiss game. It's not going to happen overnight. He's only had two days to work with the players, and we're looking forward to a couple of games in the summer when we'll have a bit longer together."

And Barry added: "In a friendly you are always going to get substitutions and it will disrupt the team play, but I thought the first half was a bit more compact and we stopped them playing any football.

"It fizzled out for us in the second half and it was slightly disappointing.

"There will have to be a lot of patience, especially from outside, but the manager will know what he is doing and we hope we can get there."

Capello insisted he was pleased with the display.

"I told the players we were happy with them because we have made progress," he said. "I saw very good things against a top level team in an away match which showed us what our worth is.

"I'm happy that I made the team play in two ways. I could see more players and it made things clearer."