Keith Webb: We are moving in the right direction

England Cerebral Palsy boss Keith Webb has told his players their progress will be measured by performances, not just results.

Webb is at St. George’s Park preparing his side for their Cerebral Palsy World Championships quarter final clash with the number one ranked nation in the world – Russia.

And while he says his charges will take to the field full of confidence, they are under no illusion as to the size of the task in hand.

“In my opinion Russia are the best team in the tournament by a long way and they will present much more stringent challenges than we have faced so far,” he told TheFA.com.

“One of the things that we stress to the boys is that it’s not about the result, it’s about the performance. 

“We’ve worked really hard to develop this performance-based mind-set around trying to become better, each performance we play.

“I’ll say the same thing to the players I say before every game – I just need you to go out on the pitch and do whatever you can for 60 minutes. 

"If you can come to me at the end of the game and say you can’t do any more then I’ll accept that.”

After navigating their way through the group stage – with a resounding 14-0 victory against Japan and a narrow 1-0 defeat to Ukraine – England face world champions Russia in the last eight on Wednesday.

The last time the two nations met was in 2014 at the European Championships.

Keith Webb says he was proud of his team's attitude against Ukraine

Russia ran out 5-1 victors that day, and Webb says he is sure his team have learnt lessons from that encounter.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we stay in the game for as long as possible,” he said.

“If we take the game to them they are more than capable of taking the game out of your reach in a short period of time, so we’ve got to be a little bit cagey and come up with a game-plan that will cause them problems. 

“But I know it will be a tall order.”

England's two games so far have both been sell-outs at St. George's Park

If England do lose to Russia on Wednesday, the tournament does not end there for them.

Rather than a regular knockout competition, the Cerebral Palsy World Championships is positional – with great emphasis put on high finishes. Not least Paralympic qualification.

Progressing through the group stage means England – as a Great Britain team – have already booked their place in Rio next year.

And in the worst case scenario on Wednesday, England will still have the opportunity to finish fifth via a series of play-off games. 

It would be their highest position in the history of the competition.

But Webb was looking no further than the next fixtures, and was pragmatic in his response when asked about breaking records.

“The fact that we’ve qualified for the Paralympics next year has taken a huge weight off our shoulders and with the performance against Ukraine,” he added.

“We’ll finish where we deserve to finish. The players are working hard to put in the performances. 

“The more we play teams like Russia and Ukraine, the better we’ll become. 

“You’ve got the top eight teams in the world and apart from Ukraine, Brazil and Russia, everyone’s very equal so we’ll finish where we deserve to finish.”

England take on Russia in the Cerebral Palsy World Championships at St. George’s Park on Wednesday 24 June. Kick-off 4.30pm.

Tickets are available to come and cheer England on. They are priced at £5 adults, £2.50 concessions and can be bought here.

The game will also be streamed live on TheFA.com.