Bentley keen to repay supporters

10:05am Friday 5th September 2008

David Bentley believes England players owe their fans after failing to qualify for Euro 2008 - and he wants to start paying them back with performances against Andorra and Croatia.

Fabio Capello's men face Andorra in Barcelona on Saturday before the trip to Zagreb on Wednesday that could potentially define their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Tottenham midfielder Bentley said: "We owe the country, don't we? It was not nice missing out on it in the summer and it would be nice to put that right."

Andorra are expected to make it as tough as possible at the Olympic Stadium at Montjuic, where Steve McClaren was subjected to abuse from England fans during the last campaign.

Slaven Bilic's Croatia then famously defeated England at Wembley to end their hopes of reaching the summer's tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

Bilic guided his country to the quarter-finals of the Euros, and Bentley feels England are up to the challenge of matching the standards Croatia set.

"I was gutted that we were not there with the players that we have," Bentley added. "If we put our minds to it, we can succeed. We have the right manager now to steer us in the right direction, hopefully to get the best out of every one of us. It is going to be difficult but I think that we are all up for the challenge."

Wigan striker Emile Heskey is among the England players confident they can get results from their first two games of the campaign.

"The mood is very optimistic - we have had a good preparation and hopefully we are going to do well," Heskey told the FA's official website.

"The coaching has been very good. The coaches go over the specifics really well and they make sure everything is nailed down. We're very professional and we go about every game the same; we want to win every game we play in."

Latest news, sport and entertainment