England captain John Terry believes his side's 2-1 friendly victory over Germany proves just how far the team has come under the guidance of Fabio Capello.

Terry headed home England's winner after 83 minutes at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. However, it was the confident and controlled nature of his team's performance - despite missing seven key players including Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand - that will have the world's top teams taking notice.

England have now won five games in a row for the first time since 2006, are top of their FIFA World Cup™ qualifying group and have not been beaten in eight games since a trip to France in March. It's all a big contrast to 2007 when they failed to qualify for UEFA EURO 2008, were beaten twice by Croatia and also lost at home to Germany in a friendly.

"A lot has changed since then," confirmed Terry. "It's been a good year. We started slowly but we gradually got our confidence back and got the fans back on our side. And we got back to winning ways. I think we're progressing very well.

"We still need to keep our feet firmly on the ground, but the work-rate and commitment we're showing for each other is really encouraging. It's something the manager stressed early on when he first got the job. You've seen the quality we've got individually and collectively as a squad and if we add in the work-rate we're halfway there."

It was a good way to end the year against a good German side. The younger players have given the manager a problem in the future because they came in and did very well.
John Terry has been delighted with Fabio Capello's first year in charge.

England, who gave a debut to Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor, certainly showed a good work-rate in Berlin as they took the lead through defender Matthew Upson from a first-half corner. And only a terrible mix-up between Terry and replacement goalkeeper Scott Carson allowed Germany striker Patrick Helmes to equalise against the run of play.

"I take full blame for it," said Chelsea star Terry. "I should have dealt with it and it was disappointing. Someone of my experience should have cleared the ball. It's not Scotty's fault. But I was delighted to go down the other end and get the goal to make up for it. I said to Stewart Downing hang it up at the far post and I'll get my head on it.

"It would have been an injustice if we had drawn the game because we played very well and deserved to win it. We got great support again and they can be encouraged by what they saw. Nobody likes their fans being against them and we did lose the confidence of our own fans after missing out on EURO 2008.

"But they are the best in the world and we've seen that in Berlin. I'm delighted to get a good result for them. It was a good way to end the year against a good German side. The younger players have given the manager a problem in the future because they came in and did very well."

Midfielder Michael Carrick, who played his first game under Capello, believes England are now on a roll. "We're gathering momentum and we're enjoying games," said the Manchester United star.

"And more importantly we're winning them. We played very well as a team and deserved to win against a good Germany side. Confidence is good within the squad at the moment and we want to keep it going now and build on what we've started."