Saturday 6 April 2019 14:04, UK
England Women's Toni Duggan and Nikita Parris remained in good spirits about their progress, despite losing 1-0 to Canada in a friendly on Friday.
Canada captain Christine Sinclair scored in the 81st minute as the Lionesses, back in action after winning the SheBelieves Cup last month, lost the first of their four 'Road to France Series' warm-up matches ahead of the World Cup in June.
The defeat was England's third in 16 games since Phil Neville took charge in January 2018, with the previous one being the 2-0 loss to Sweden in November, but Duggan says she would rather suffer defeat now than in the summer.
"It was a difficult test. Obviously it's always disappointing when you lose but to be honest I feel proud of the team," the Barcelona forward said.
"We stuck to our principles and the girls were brave and confident to get on the ball. That didn't change throughout.
"It's disappointing but that's why we have these friendlies. I'd rather get it wrong here and right in the World Cup than right here and wrong in the World Cup.
"They're great opposition and I'm sure we could come up against them in France so we'll be ready for that. It's difficult but we'll move on. We've got another tough test on Tuesday against Spain and it's part of our journey on the road to France."
England struggled to pose much of a threat in the first half against Canada until Manchester City's Nikita Parris brought a save out of Stephanie Labbe in the closing moments.
After the break, Duggan sent a shot narrowly wide as the hosts registered a number of attempts without breaking the deadlock, before Canada scored late on to win the match.
"We're going to have games like this but we've got to correct them now so that they don't happen in the World Cup," Parris added.
"We'll go back, recover, learn from this but ultimately we've got to be better in the final third."
