Faye returns for Austria

FIFA 2007 Women's World Cup qualifier
England v Austria
Thursday 20 April 2006, 7.45pm kick-off
Gillingham FC

Hope Powell has made just one change to the England Squad announced today to take on Austria, with Faye White returning in place of Laura Bassett.

Faye missed the 0-0 draw against France at Ewood Park on 26 March after picking up a one match suspension, when she could only watch as a studio guest for the BBC in London.

In the corresponding fixture in September, Natascha Celouch gave the Austrians a shock lead when she outpaced Alex Scott to score past Rachel Brown from 25 yards out.

England recovered to secure a 4-1 win thanks to a penalty from Fara Williams and further goals from Kelly Smith, Amanda Barr and Sue Smith, and Faye is wary not to underestimate Austria on April 20 at the Priestfield Stadium.

"Sometimes people look at the world rankings and see that we are 13th and Austria are 45th" Faye told TheFA.com, "but as they proved in Amstetten, if we aren't on our game, they have players who can punish us.

"It was frustrating having to watch the France game, and despite that being a very good result, I think a lot of the players were disappointed.

"To me that was really encouraging though, as it shows the mindset of the players thinks we can compete on level terms against teams in the top five of the world.

"We have been very professional so far and are delighted to be in the position that we're in on top of the group, and we'll be looking for the same amount of commitment as against France.

"If we can repeat that, and add some more quality when we get in the final third, hopefully that will set us up nicely for our last qualifier of the season at home to Hungary."

Group 5 of the European Qualifying groups is very evenly poised, with England just a point ahead of Holland, with France a further two points behind, but elsewhere the 'old guard' are being challenged.

Italy, despite a disappointing Euro 2005 are hot on the heels of Norway in Group 1, the Czech Republic and Sweden are deadlocked at the top of Group 2, whilst in the other two groups, Spain and Russia are level on points with Denmark and Germany, albeit having played one game more.

Here is the England squad in full: