Butt says England will go all out for victory

Nicky Butt has insisted that England ‘‘will go for the win’’ in Wednesday’s vital World Cup group clash with Nigeria.

England need only a draw in Osaka to ensure that they qualify for the second phase of the competition after their memorable victory over Argentina on Friday put their destiny back into their own hands.

But Butt, who turned in a man-of-the-match performance in the Sapporo Dome, is adamant that England will adopt a positive approach as they strive to try and finish at the head of their so called ‘Group Of Death.’

Such a scenario would also give England extra time to recover from the Nigerian match as they would then play their second phase match on Sunday as opposed to the previous day.

Butt said: ‘‘We know we only need a draw to go through but we will be going for the win. That’s the only way we know how to play.

‘‘We want to win every game, we want to win the group and if we can do that then we will take great confidence from doing that in such a tough group into the next stages.’’

Butt was out for five weeks with a knee problem before being brought straight into the side to face Argentina in a holding type of role.

Even coach Sven-Goran Eriksson admitted that he had been surprised by how well Butt had performed for the entire 90 minutes given the length of his spell on the sidelines.

He made his debut five years ago against Mexico but has never established himself as a first-choice member of the side and would probably only be on the fringe had Steven Gerrard been fit.

Now the 27-year-old is hoping that situation may be about to change after his performance on Friday.

Butt said: ‘‘I’m 100% fit physically, although you would hope for a few more games under your belt from a match-fitness point of view but there’s no time for that and you’ve just got to do the best you can.

‘‘Naturally I was disappointed not to play in the first game because you want to play in the World Cup but I had only trained for three or four days beforehand and could understand the manager’s decision.

‘‘But it was great to get in against Argentina and hopefully I can stay in the side now. We had to play well to defeat a team like that and now we have to try for the same on Wednesday.’’

Skipper David Beckham said: ‘‘I have always said that Nicky can play for England for a lot of years and he just needed the chance.

‘‘He had the chance against Argentina, he definitely took it and it gave Paul Scholes the chance to

get forward to create things.

‘‘Nick sat back and was the rock in midfield and for me he was the man of the match against Argentina.’’