Houghton ready to pour water on Belgium's Red Flames

Saturday 17 Sep 2016
Steph Houghton waves to the crowd after the 5-0 win over Estonia

Steph Houghton said England are ready to make amends for the points they dropped against Belgium in April.

Mark Sampson’s side will finish their European Championship qualifying campaign away to the Red Flames on Tuesday.

Both sides have already secured their place at next year’s finals and if England avoid defeat they will finish top of Group 7.

Belgium v England

UEFA Women's Euro 2017
Group 7 qualifier
6pm BST, Tuesday 20 September
Den Dreef, Louvain, Belgium
Live on BBC Red Button and website

The last time the two sides met Jill Scott’s 84th-minute equaliser rescued a draw for the Lionesses – and they are the only two points they have dropped throughout the whole campaign.

Houghton said: “That wasn’t one of our best performances, we know that.

“We were frustrated with that result and we will be going to Belgium to try and put that right. We want to put in an even better performance and get the win this time.

“Now that we’ve had a few more matches we'll be in better shape to do just that.

“We owe it to ourselves. We had a lot of the ball last time, we just didn’t create too much. We have learned from that experience, though, and scored 14 goals in two games against Serbia.”

England eased to a 5-0 win over Estonia on Thursday night in their final qualifier on home soil.

They have scored 30 goals and conceded just one, to Belgium’s Janice Cayman.

But Houghton believes England have grown since that 1-1 draw in Rotherham and said her team-mates are constantly aiming to better themselves.

The skipper added: “We are happy with how many goals we have scored in this campaign so it’s about driving each other on and making sure we keep our standards as high as possible.

“We want to be the best, there’s no hiding from that.

“When you look at our squad you can take great confidence from the fact we’ve got some great players. We have improved so much during the time we have been under Mark.

“We are definitely improving every time we get together.”

By Glenn Lavery at St. George's Park