Yankey positive despite Euro exit

Winger Rachel Yankey has said the defeats that cost England the chance to reach the Euro 2005 semi-finals did not reflect the progress the team had made.
England's group campaign started with a 3-2 win over Finland but losses against Denmark and Sweden led to the hosts being eliminated at the first hurdle.

"It's disappointing - we're all gutted we didn't go through," said Yankey.

"We had the best possible start and from then our performance got better and our results went downhill."

The 26-year-old insisted that the team would learn from the mistakes.

"We will learn from it and playing-wise we have proved we can compete with the best in the world," she added.

"We have made mistakes. In the game against Denmark we let them come back in the game when we should have killed it off.

"Against Sweden, the goal came from a corner. People jumped in front of England midfielder Katie Chapman, she didn't see it, it hit her stomach and they scored.

"There is not a lot you can do about it, it's just unfortunate."

Yankey also said that the tournament's popularity - nearly 70,000 fans came to watch England's three matches - was a major step forward for the women's game.

"One day, myself and Mary Phillip went into Accrington to the shops and loads of people were shouting `Come on England' and `Good luck', which was great," she said.

"The amount of people that have been coming to watch us shows that people are starting to take us seriously.

"It's definitely been a success. We are disappointed now because we wanted to go through but when we go home and look on it and reflect on it, it has been a really enjoyable time, it's been wicked."