'We've made massive steps in the last year,' says Cahill

Gary Cahill says England have made "massive steps" in the last year as they look to complete a 12-month unbeaten run.

You have to go back 19 years for the last time the Three Lions, statistically at least, ended a season without a loss - though that did climax in a penalty shootout defeat to Germany in the Euro 96 semi-final. 

Prior to that it was during Graham Taylor's first season in charge following Italia '90, so it is a rare achievement indeed.

And, as they prepare for their last game of the season in Slovenia, the Chelsea defender is eager to wrap things up with another three points in their European Qualifiers.

"The results after the World Cup are good - obviously we are unbeaten and we’ve won every game in our group," said the 29-year-old.

"It would be great if we could get a result on Sunday and go a whole year unbeaten. That is what we are aiming to do.

"I think there have been massive steps made, not just the results but with the performances as well. 

"You’ve seen a freshness about us from the World Cup onwards, hence why that was a bit disappointing [to draw against Ireland] because that was unlike us.

"We are going in the right direction. There are a lot of young players, a lot of players who haven’t got many caps, and for them the experience of this campaign has proved vital.

"You can see the confidence growing in the group."

Cahill has played every minute in Euro 2016 qualifying as England have won five out of five to top Group E by six points - ahead of Slovenia and Switzerland.

He has lined up alongside three different centre-backs this season, Phil Jones and Phil Jagielka, while Chris Smalling has been Cahill's partner in his last two friendly outings.

But with only three goals conceded in their last ten games, Cahill believes much has improved since last year's disappointing World Cup.

"We changed a few things within the camp after the World Cup, formation being one of them, which I thought worked well for us.

"Defensively we have been very solid, not just the back four and the goalkeeper, but throughout the team we have worked hard.

"We knew we needed a backbone to build from - the manager stressed that we need to be solid and ruthless at the other end.

"We are proud of the clean sheets. We just missed out on a record - we had five on the bounce - but we have had a lot of clean sheets during this campaign so we should be very proud."

Cahill lines up with Wilshere and Henderson in Dublin

He added: "We need to win the game on Sunday. We need to go on in the same vein as what we’ve been doing.

"No matter who is put in front of you, to win every game in the qualifying group is a huge achievement, so we want to keep that going.

"We know we have got one more game to go before we all get a break so we don’t need any motivation for this game.

"It is going to be tough, it is against one of the better teams in our group but we want to get the job done.

"We know if we win this game, potentially, the following game that comes up we could qualify. We need no motivation going into this."