Former Nationwide International Player of the Year Casey Stoney has her sights firmly set on three points against Turkey thus Thursday. After a disappointing draw against Spain last month, she is determined that the England girls learn from their mistakes to beat Turkey, guaranteeing top spot in Group 5 and a place in the all-important play-offs. She also talks about Chelsea’s involvement in the Super League, and just how far away it all seems....

I’m currently with the England camp, and training for Thursday’s game against Turkey is going pretty well. We met up on Sunday evening and had two sessions on Monday. The first session wasn’t great though, as Carly Telford dislocated her shoulder early on. It’s a real shame for her, and for everyone else, so we all hope she can recover quickly. That aside, we’re all really focused on Thursday’s match. It’s going to be a very different challenge to Spain. Rather than coming at us strongly from the start, Turkey will probably sit back, take a lot of pressure and maybe try to hit us on the break. If we play the way we know we can, we can get three points out of this.

We learned a lot from that draw against Spain actually. I’d say it was probably our most challenging qualifier. They’re such a good attacking side, and we really under-performed as a group. In fact, I think it was our worst performance in the last few years. The changes at half time made all the difference; Jill Scott came on and made such a difference. She gave us the impetus that had been lacking in the first half and that meant we were able to claw our way back into it. We were fortunate to get away with a draw if I’m honest. It’s great that we did, but things could have been very different against a better side. A lot of teams wouldn’t let you back in after conceding twice.

We obviously went into it looking for the win, but after going 2-0 down, you can’t ask for much more than a point, can you?

So, tonight we’re going to analyse that game in detail, and hopefully we’ll be able to learn a lot more by looking at it retrospectively.

As far as next Summer goes, it’s difficult to get excited about the World Cup in Germany because qualifying is such a long and difficult process. As with anything, you can’t get excited about it until you know you’re going to be there! I want to get excited, because it looks like it’s going to be the biggest World Cup yet, especially considering the support the German girls have had recently.

International matters aside, things at club level are a bit frustrating at the moment. At Chelsea, we’re all really excited about the Super League, but we have seven or eight months to wait until we actually play! As individuals, we’re all are doing plenty of fitness work, and international duty helps to keep our match fitness ticking over in the meantime.

Unfortunately, not a lot can happen with contracts and things like that at the moment, so we can’t actually sign anyone for a while. That said, I know that there has been quite a lot of interest in new players, so we’ll have to wait and see what comes of it.

While all this waiting is frustrating, the thought of the Super League is indescribably exciting; it’s a massive step for women’s football, particularly now that ESPN is on board. Between the Super League and the World Cup, next year is going to be the biggest year ever for the sport. It just can’t come quickly enough for me!

I can’t think about it too much for now though; we’re all focused on Thursday’s match, and we’ll be going all out for the win!

Casey Stoney wears the S1 Sport Protection System