England captain Sherry McCue has issued a rallying cry as her side prepare for their crucial final group match at the FIFA Women’s U20 World Cup.
The Young Lions face Nigeria in the early hours of Thursday morning, knowing only a win will guarantee progress to the quarter finals of Canada 2014.
Mo Marley’s charges drew their opening two matches, with South Korea and Mexico, leaving them second in Group C, level on points with the North Americans.
England v Nigeria
FIFA Women's U20 World Cup
Group C
1am BST, Thursday 14 August 2014
Edmonton, Canada
Nigeria have four points, South Korea only one, so an England victory in Edmonton will seal a spot in the last eight.
McCue said: “We’ve put the Mexico game to bed now. We’ve reviewed the game, we know where we can improve and now all our thoughts are on Nigeria.
“We know they will bring a different challenge to the other two teams we have played so far. Now it’s all about how we prepare.”
England and Nigeria were on the same five-hour flight from Moncton to Edmonton and both teams have had to adjust to another time zone.
They are both staying in the same hotel, just a quarter of an hour away from the West Edmonton Mall which up until 2004 was the largest shopping centre in the world.
McCue et al. will visit the mall ahead of their first training session in the Alberta province, but the Aston Villa midfielder has put retail therapy to the back of her mind and is only interested in World Cup progress.
She added: “We haven’t come here to go home after the group stage. We want to go as far as we can.
“We know what we’ve got to do, it’s in our own hands and we are all focused on getting the win.”
England came from behind to draw with South Korea, the Asian champions, but were unable to make their dominance count against Mexico as they let a one-goal lead slip in the second half.
But McCue, who captained the U19s last season as they finished runners-up to France in the Euros, says her team-mates have learned lessons from their opening two group matches.
She said: “We need to finish our chances and be more clinical in front of goal.
“Credit to Mexico, they came at us strongly in the second half, but I think we sat back a bit more than we should have and put ourselves under pressure.
“We knew they were going to come at us, we just didn’t react to it.
“But that game’s gone now, as has the South Korea game. It all comes down to Nigeria.
“We’ve pulled results out of the bag in the past when we’ve needed to and I know we can do it again.
“Hopefully we can get the result we want. We’re not ready to go home yet.”
