John Terry is determined to make amends

John Terry is determined to make amends for the worst moment of his career by helping England finally punch their weight at the World Cup.

Terry still carries the psychological scars of England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008 during his first spell as the national team’s captain.

England missed out on a major tournament for the first time in 14 years as Steve McClaren’s men were beaten by Croatia in November 2007 when they needed just a draw to reach the finals.

But Terry was given a shot at redemption by McClaren’s successor Fabio Capello who installed the Chelsea defender as his skipper after a lengthy audition period.

Terry rates that failed campaign under McClaren as an even more agonising experience than his missed penalty kick in the 2008 Champions League final against Manchester United that cost his club the European trophy.

But the 28-year-old has responded to the pain with some typically robust performances to lead England to top spot in their World Cup qualifying group.

With a place at the World Cup in South Africa certain, Terry has set his sights on emulating the achievements of the 1990 England team, who reached the World Cup semi-finals in Italy – the country’s best performance at the tournament since their only winning campaign in 1966.

“I have had real downs in my career in the Champions League, but not qualifying with England is by far the biggest for me,” Terry said.

“That has been churning in my stomach for a long time. That will never leave me. I wake up in the middle of the night still thinking about stuff.

“I think when you are captain of the national side you carry the weight of everything on your own shoulders. I take a lot of things personally.

“When you look at our league, which we always say is the best in the world, and some of the players playing in the biggest competitions, we should be qualifying, it’s as simple as that.”

By the time England kick off the World Cup next year they could be in an even stronger position among the favourites judging by the struggles of some of their potential rivals for the trophy.

Portugal are well off the pace in their qualifying group, while former World Cup winners France and Argentina are also far from certain to make it.

“There are some big teams struggling at the moment and there are some big teams not going to be there,” Terry said.

“Portugal are struggling at the moment, Argentina as well. They have a few games to correct it but there are going to be some big teams possibly not in the World Cup.

“We have learned a lot from that. We always said we were good individually but not as a team. We are starting to improve that now.

“You look at Argentina and the players they have in their squad and they are struggling.

“Any team can struggle. Year after year at international level, the quality is getting higher.

“When I spoke to Michael Ballack after we didn’t qualify for Euro 2008 the first thing he said was Germany’s chances were better because England weren’t there. It’s as simpe as that. That is the mentality of the other players and we need to put ourselves there ”

Capello has no fears that England will acquit themselves and win in South Africa because he believes the squad’s spirit is now strong enough to cope with the pressure.

“I think it is the dream of all the managers (to win the World Cup). When I arrived with the group everyone wrote it would be hard to qualify, for this reason I worked to give confidence to the team,” he said.

“I have big confidence in my team now. I am sure we will be ok in every moment.

“I like the English spirit. I saw this spirit in a lot of games we played away. It is impossible to win without spirit. Sometimes we suffered but we played better in the second half.”