England have landed in Holland and after their first night away and opening training session, Tayls says the team spirit is high, especially after his comments in a national newspaper...

Here we are, we have arrived in Holland and we are here to do a job and win this tournament, after the game on Tuesday night against Slovakia, confidence is really high.

I’m still buzzing from my goal; it’s an amazing feeling when you score for your country. I’m the top scorer in the squad at the minute, that was my fourth, but I don’t care how many goals I score, what’s more important are clean sheets and winning games.

That’s just what we got at Norwich on Tuesday and I thought we played very well, particularly in the second half, and it puts us in a great frame of mind for two weeks in Holland.

Following the game I went back home to Newcastle to spend some time with the family for a couple of days, and I also wanted to make sure I had enough DVDs with me. I’ve brought loads with me to Holland, I love watching series, stuff like Las Vegas, Entourage and Heroes, they’ll keep me entertained while I’m relaxing and chilling out during our downtime.

On Thursday night I flew down from Newcastle with Ben Alnwick and we went to the team hotel at the Forest of Arden, where they play some major golf tournaments, and stayed the night ahead of our morning flight from Birmingham to Amsterdam.

When we got to Holland it was boiling hot, really muggy, not like the weather we left back home. After settling into our hotel in Oosterbeek, about 15 minutes away from Arnhem where we play our first two games, we walked through the woods next to the hotel, which a lot of the lads were moaning about, and went over to a nearby pitch to stretch our legs and have a little session.

This morning at breakfast I was shown a copy of the Daily Mail with some player profiles I did over the phone with them last week. It went down quite well and has caused a good bit of banter around the place, it’s a good job the lads have a sense of humour and can take it. And besides, I was only telling the truth!

We had our first session at the main training ground in Bemmel today too, which is a 20 minute drive away from the camp. The facilities were really good. It’s where the local amateur team Sportclub Bemmel play and as well as a main pitch with a little stand, there are also about four or five other pitches around, all with nice surfaces.

It’s difficult to compare it with anything back home, but there seems to be a lot of places like that over here.

We had a good session, worked a bit on tactics and formation and the lads looked really sharp. I also tucked away my penalty in the shootout afterwards, Scotty had no chance!

I’m not playing on Monday, but I’m still treating the sessions like I am. I’ll probably do a little bit extra before the game while the players are resting, just to keep me on my toes.

But everyone is really up for this and we are determined not just to come and make up the numbers; we want to win the trophy. Hopefully, next time I write, we’ll be three points nearer to that goal.

See you soon…

Steven Taylor

If you have any questions you'd like to ask Steven, why not email them in to editor@TheFA.com...