While drawing in Austria was not the perfect way for the team to open their World Cup qualifying campaign, it was not the catastrophe that many are trying to portray.

With nine games left to decide who progresses to Germany in 2006, the first of which against Poland on Wednesday night, England have plenty of time to find their swagger.

Eriksson has yet to see his side lose a qualification game and but for the width of a post, England would have three points to their name already.

The former Lazio coach for one has certainly not had his confidence shaken despite Austria's surprise fightback and has urged England fans not to do the same.

He said: "I'm sure we will qualify for the World Cup despite what happened in the second half. I am sure it won't go wrong. I really believe that.

"It was a disappointing result to draw in Austria especially as we had already done enough to win the game, but there are nine more games and the first of those is on Wednesday.

"England is a beautiful nation. The interest in the game is huge and that's good, but football is not a computer where you enter in data and you know what is going to comeout.

"Everyone has their own opinion on the game and what we should do. We are all experts after a game. Everyone should be proud of this - I am.

"The most important thing is that the fans believe in the England team. We have famous players, good players working very hard trying to achieve the maximum for England and they will do it.

"I have put in new blood like Jermain Defoe and Shaun Wright-Phillips into the squad, but the worst thing I could do at this moment is take five players out and put new ones in. I won't do that and will stick with the same. I trust the players and I know they will do the job for England."

But that is not to say that the England chief does not believe the team has to improve or learn from some of the mistakes which cost them a victory.

The Austrian fightback was very reminiscent of what happened in Euro 2004 when France stole a victory with two goals in as many minutes.

Much like France, Austria got back into the game courtesy of a stunning free kick from just outside the area and were given renewed confidence and Eriksson admits it is something that has to be addressed.

He added: "The one thing we have to learn from is to stop giving free kicks outside the box. The Austria free kick was much like the one against France and hopefully we will learn not to do that.

"We have lost a lot of goals in games in the last 15 minutes. We have that stat for sure. But I don't think we panicked. We gave away one free kick outside the box and then there was a shot from distance. Before and after that we had good opportunities to score.

"We had the game in our hands and we should have won it. We played well especially in the first half, but we didn't go on to win the game. It will be better if we beat Poland and go top of the group."