Baines will be called on again to ensure Cole is not missed

The Chelsea left-back was unavailable for the match against Montenegro on Friday night, but his understudy Leighton Baines performed well in a 4-1 win which keeps Roy Hodgson’s team well placed to secure an automatic berth at next summer’s finals in Brazil.

The Football Association confirmed yesterday Cole is still unable to feature, with Baines set to deputise again as England go in search of the win that would guarantee qualification.

Everton defender Baines is confident he will turn in another assured display oand give his manager further food for thought over who should be his first-choice left-back going forward.

“The manager feels that we can both do the job,” Baines said.

“He can call on either one of us. That’s all that matters really, that the job gets done.”

Baines’s appearance against Montenegro on Friday earned his 20th cap for his country and he feels he is developing as a player with every national team outing.

“There’s significance with every cap you get,” he said.

“You grow into it more and more. The more experience you get at this level, the better.

“It’s been good to be involved in some more of the qualifiers in this campaign.”

Baines confirmed the mood in the England camp was upbeat in the wake of Friday’s impressive win in their penultimate Group H outing.

“I’m pleased with how things are going at the moment,” he said. “There’s a feel-good factor around the whole camp at the moment.

“We’ve approached both of these games like any other camp. We’ve not deviated from any schedule.

“There are no special plans. We focus on what we need to do.”

Poland’s defeat to Ukraine on Friday ended their hopes of reaching Brazil but Baines believes it is difficult to predict how that will affect the attitude they take into tomorrtow’s match.

“It may be a difficult task. You’re not sure, now that Poland are out of the equation, how they’re going to approach the game. But I guess we’ve got to forget about that to a certain extent.

“It’s a tough task because they’re a good side, but we’re also aware the reward at the end is massive as well and that’s a great incentive for us.

“We’ve got the job half done now and we’ve got to go and finish it off.”

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