We have achieved nothing yet, warns skipper John Terry

James Olley
9 Jun 2009

England captain John Terry admitted today he was hoping for a good performance to reward those England fans who are able to make it to tomorrow night's game despite the travel difficulties posed by the tube strike.

But the Chelsea defender warned his team-mates that they had to keep pushing for another victory on the road to South Africa next year even though they sit on top of Group Six with a 100 per cent record.

Whipping-boys Andorra are the visitors to Wembley and Terry said: "We had 1,500 fans going all the way to Kazakhstan so we know we are always going to get great support from the England fans but maybe tomorrow night is a chance to pay them back for all the hard work they give us with a good win.

"We owe it to ourselves to do it. None of us having been in this position before and it would be be great to end the season on a high."

Terry is pleased that England are closing in on qualification for next year's World Cup finals, but not complacent.

"I still think we have got improvements to make to the team, individually and collectively," he added.

"At the moment we are going in the right direction and hopefully, if we do qualify, we can keep improving next year."

Terry believes Andorra are not the pushovers they once were, and is expecting a battle.

He added: "It's more difficult, year after year you see teams improving. We saw that when we played Andorra away last year.

"I think they will make it difficult. They've got two brothers who are big lumps at centre-half."

He also feels that England's players are not getting carried away by their run of impressive form.

"Things are going well, we are in a great position, but let's not get too carried away," he said.

"We can make it seven [wins] out of seven, but we need to keep our feet on the ground.

"We're not there yet. Let's keep going on that snowball run." Terry admitted England are expected to dominate the match and he and his fellow defenders will need to keep their focus.

"Maybe it is a difficult game for a defender. Me and Matthew Upson need to keep our concentration and not have too many touches on the ball. We need to move the ball really quickly and make it difficult for them."

Upson is likely to start again in the absence of Rio Ferdinand and he has thanked the two Italian managers in his life for helping him to achieve his dream of playing in a World Cup.

While the clash with Andorra will see Upson win his 16th cap, playing alongside Terry, more than half of those have been won under Fabio Capello's stewardship of England and playing in a West Ham side now managed by Gianfranco Zola.

There was a time in his career when the 30-year-old feared he would not be good enough to play at the highest level but, between the two of them, Capello and Zola have helped turn Upson from a solid defender in the top flight to someone who will have even Terry and Ferdinand looking over their shoulders.

Assessing his two latin masters, Upson said: "They have their similarities and their differences.

"Being Italian they are very aware of developing the team tactically and technically, but they are very different characters.

"With Fabio Capello, I feel the things he has touched on, tactically, have improved me as a player. We have been raised as traditional English defenders, but the Italian way is quite different.

"He has been trying to coax the Italian style into us in terms of where to be positionally when the ball is wide.

"English centre-halves traditionally go and attack the ball in the space whereas he wants you to get hold of the player and be tight to the man. It is more man-marking. He finds that works best.

"It was hard to change that mentality at the start because I wasn't doing what he wanted, but he gets his point across and he has improved me as a centre-half. It is a better way of defending crosses and has brought my game on.

"Gianfranco has helped strengthen my game, too. It is very important at international level to be able to play with the ball and it is something I am working on a lot.

"His training is based on that a lot at West Ham and he and Steve Clarke have also drilled us to become more of a defensive unit."

Both men appear to have had a big influence on Upson.

He added: "This has been the best season of my career to date, I have played the most games for England and developed my game."