Georgia Stanway believes she thrived on her full World Cup debut in the 2-0 defeat of Japan on Wednesday because of the "trust" Phil Neville has in all his players.
Stanway is the youngest member of the England squad but has some experience on the biggest stages, having top-scored at the U20 World Cup last summer.
She made substitute appearances against Scotland and Argentina before being named in the starting XI in Nice on Wednesday, one of eight changes made by Neville.
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The 20-year-old described the occasion as “unbelievable” after a stellar performance which saw her engineer a fine assist for Ellen White’s opening goal.
Stanway said: “I feel like with Phil he’s got the trust of everybody.
“As you can see, pretty much everybody has had the chance to get on the pitch. There’s a few that have obviously not made that yet, but I’m almost certain they’ll get their opportunity at some point.
“I think that shows the depth in our team. You can see that whenever somebody scores, the whole bench is up, and everybody is trying to celebrate together because we’re one.”
She continued: “There’s obviously no bigger stage than this and I’ve done it surrounded by the girls that I absolutely love. It’s hard for me to describe because I just loved every minute.”
Neville’s charges are the first England team to win all three group games at a World Cup since Ron Greenwood’s men in 1982 and it has set up a round of 16 clash with Cameroon in Valenciennes on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s something we set out to do,” said Stanway.
“We came here wanting to get the nine points and wanting to win the three games because that gives us momentum to progress from there.
“We’ve still eyes on silverware and we’ll do what we can to lift the trophy at the end.
“We’re not afraid to say that because what’s the point in coming to a major tournament and not saying that you want to win?”
And as England progressed to the knockout stages of the tournament, the Manchester City attacker believes they are the team others will not want to face.
“We’d hope that they fear us," she said. "We’d hope that nobody wants to play England.”
If England can get past Cameroon they will face either Australia or Norway in the quarter finals.
