Rooney calls for improvement

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18 October 2012-PA Sport

"Decent point" ... England's Wayne Rooney (Getty Images)

Wayne Rooney insists England needs to improve after its 1-1 draw with Poland in Warsaw on Thursday morning (AEDT).

England leads its World Cup-qualifying pool – Group H – by one point from Montenegro, which has a game in hand, after Rooney's 32nd goal for his country was cancelled out by Kamil Glik midway through the second period.

Rooney believes a share of the spoils is not a disaster after the game eventually went ahead a day late due to a waterlogged pitch.

However, the Manchester United striker knows England has to produce better performances.

He said: "Do England have to improve to qualify? Yes, of course. We know we can play a lot better than that.

"But at least we got the point. It was a hard-fought point. It was a difficult game, a difficult pitch. We weren't at our best but we dug in and got a draw.

"We know we can play better but this is a difficult place to come. It is a decent point.

"We knew it was a tough group, but we're confident. We believe in ourselves and we believe we are the best team in the group, so we are confident of qualifying."

Skipper Steven Gerrard is never afraid to admit the truth and acknowledged England was "not totally at the races."

He said: "It was difficult conditions and a difficult pitch but we can't use that as an excuse.

"I thought Poland dealt with the conditions and played to the conditions slightly better than us. That's the reason we didn't get three points.

"The pitch was slippy, wet, cutting up. I think it was only laid a week and a half ago so it wasn't ideal. Both teams tried to make the most of it and they did it better than us.

"We did okay until we scored but never built on the one-goal lead. We never passed the ball well enough, for whatever reason."

Gerrard refused to use the 20-hour delay before the game went ahead for England's poor showing.

The Liverpool midfielder said: "When you're fired up, pumped up, you've had your massages and you're ready to go, that's not ideal [when the game is called off].

"But we're professionals. We're playing at the top level and we had to get ourselves up for this but I didn't think we were totally at the races."