England midfielder Jordan Henderson has said that the team's ignominious Euro 2016 exit at the hands of Iceland this summer can be used as fuel to drive them on to success in the future.
The Three Lions were eliminated by the minnows in the first knockout round of the tournament - a result widely criticised and described by some as the worst in the nation's footballing history.
Henderson - an unused sub on the day - admitted that it was "horrible" to be in the dressing room after the game, but hopes that some good can still come from one of England's lowest moments in the sport.
"It was a horrible place to be. We felt we had let ourselves down, we had let the country down, the manager - everyone, really. People were emotional. I think the manager was emotional with the talk that he gave afterwards. It wasn't nice to see. Everyone is human. Sometimes people think we are machines and they can just chuck everything at whoever the manager is and criticise," he told reporters.
"But, at the end of the day, I can tell you we do care. In that dressing room afterwards, it wasn't a nice place to be. But there is only us who can turn that around. We have got to use that in the future as a positive to turn it around. Hopefully we can look back at that one day after a lot of better things have happened. I think mentality is big in football.
"I wouldn't say there was a mental block in the team. I feel very much that the team is together, a very close group and we do a lot of things outside of training, all together, which I think helps that. I do believe in training and in games we all believe we can do something special but, as I said before, it's no good me sitting here and telling you that. It's up to us to go out there on the pitch and prove to people that we are good enough to play for England and hopefully make people proud of us."
England will take on Malta at Wembley on Sunday looking to make it two wins from two in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
