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It's very special - Rachel

Women's Football News 30 Jul 2010

It's very special - Rachel - 30 Jul 2010 - Women's Football News

A proud Rachel Yankey reflected on her 100th appearance for England and gave thanks to Hope Powell and Faye White on awarding her the captaincy for the 3-0 win against Turkey.

"I couldn't ask for much more, to be honest," she said. "It was a nice touch from Hope and Faye to let me lead the team out but once you cross that line, the captaincy is irrelevant. But it's nice to get the armband.

Rachel revealed after the game that she had worn a special shirt with "100th cap" embroidered on it and that she was delighted at reaching the milestone. "It's very special," she admitted, "only Gill Coulthard has done it and that means a lot as there have been a lot of fantastic players that have retired or are still playing and for me to second to Gill is really good."

She went on to crown the day by scoring the opening goal, her 13th goal for her country. "It was nice to get the goal," she said, "because I felt like I wasn't getting in the game as the plan was for the wide players to stay wide and stretch their defence.

"It was a good move - I thought Alex [Scott] was going to shoot so I pulled off to follow in her shot but then she passed it to me, so it's probably best that I didn't have time to think. The goal settled the team down and it was needed at that point."

Now England have a play-off challenge to look forward to in September, having clinched top spot in their group with a game to play, and Rachel is not worried about who they will have to face. "Part one is done," she said. "We're into the play-offs and whoever we get will be extremely difficult. There will be more pressure and it is going to get more difficult but hopefully we can now build on it and peak in the next few games.

"We don't want to be sitting at home watching the World Cup - we're all pulling together to make sure we get there, then it's about proving how good we are."