Alex Scott and England go from strength to strength under Mark Sampson ahead of the final hurdle

By Alex Scott. With 114 England caps to her name, England full back Alex Scott might be excused for a little complacency ahead of the Lionesses' World Cup qualifier on Thursday night. However, the Arsenal and England defender knows no such feeling, and is well aware that the decisive qualifier in Wales may be the team's toughest test yet. In her exclusive blog for The Offside Rule, Alex previews the upcoming tie in Cardiff, and what it would mean to win it. We’re within touching distance but there is work to be done before we can plan for the 2015 World Cup. It’s a massive week on the international front for the England Women’s team this week. We are at St George’s Park ahead of our World Cup Qualifier against Wales, in which a win or a draw will see us secure an automatic place at next year’s World Cup in Canada.

Before going into the Euro’s last year we played a friendly against the hosts, Sweden. To say they spanked us would be an understatement! We lost the game 4-1; we were out-muscled and could get nowhere near them in that game.

When we met up a couple of weeks ago for our friendly against Sweden in Hartlepool, we knew it was going to be a real test but it was one we were all looking forward to. As a player, you want to play against the best teams in the world. It’s about testing yourself as a team as well as individually.

From the opening minute of the game, I’m not sure Sweden knew what had hit them. We didn’t give them a second on the ball all over the pitch and they couldn’t handle the movement of our forward line. Debuts from Jodie Taylor and Fran Kirby both brought something new to the team, with the latter getting on the score sheet and taking home the Woman of the Match award.

Karen Carney scored a great goal to put some gloss on what was a great day for the team. Not only did we win the game 4-0, we played one of the top Europeans teams totally off the park. It was a fantastic day and I imagine they left Hartlepool feeling how we felt a year ago, which wasn’t great!

What we can not do as a team, however, is rest on what was done in that game. We need to use it to push on to new levels and the game against Wales will be a totally different test. Wales are still very much in the hunt for a place at next year’s finals and if they beat us, it will put them in a great position. The game is on their patch at Cardiff City Stadium too so I’m sure they will have a lot of fans will behind them.

I will never forget the feeling when we qualified for the World Cup back in 2007. It was the team’s first World Cup and the smiles on our faces showed how happy we were; the emotions that night in France were unreal.

I am excited to be a part of this team – and when I say ‘team’, this extends to everyone including the management and staff that work just as hard as the players do to get to World Cups. Hopefully I will get to experience the same emotions I felt in France with some of the newer players in the squad that have not yet experienced a senior World Cup tournament.

Before I start looking too far ahead though, we have to stay focused on the job at hand. Although we are in touching distance, we are not there yet. We know Wales have threats in their team like all international teams do, but this England team is growing together and we believe in what we are doing as a group.

We have 90 minutes of football to play to make sure we execute Mark’s game plan on Thursday night. Then we can start to get excited about what beckons in 2015.

Who has been England’s best player in qualification? How far will the Lionesses get if they qualify for Canada 2015?

Read more from Alex Scott here!

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