Barry can't wait

Gareth Barry says that England are looking for a positive start to their World Cup qualification campaign when they take on Andorra on Saturday evening.

The Aston Villa midfielder believes that a positive performance and result on Saturday could be just what England are looking for in Group Six, particularly with Croatia the opponents just four days later.

Barry said: "It is always better to start the group well and start positively. It can set you up nicely for the remainder of the games.

"We will take one game at a time and hope we can breed confidence from Saturday's game to take into the match in Croatia.

"We know the type of game it is going to be against Andorra. I was a substitute the last time we played them and they get all their bodies behind the ball and they are tough to break down.

"That will be something we can learn from but we will be going into the game looking for a good start to the campaign.''

Looking back on the previous qualification campaign Barry believes that the experiences of losing out on participation at a major tournament has to be used as an incentive this time around.

"It is important that the hurt from the Croatia game stays in the players' minds a little bit,'' Barry explained.

"We can't focus on it too much because it was a negative moment but that hurt will stay with players for a long time and it is important we learn from that.

"I can only speak for myself in saying we are professional people trying to win a game of football and, whether it is club or country, there is a lot of pain when you are on the losing side.

"Those games against the likes of Russia and Croatia last season were really high-profile matches with so much at stake and to lose those hurt me a lot and stuck with me for a while.''