England captain Andrew Flintoff is adamant his team has put behind its shock defeat to Australia in the second Ashes Test last week, and believes his charges will hit back hard in the third Test starting at the WACA Ground on Thursday.
The tourists capitulated on the final day in Adelaide when they were skittled for 129 runs in their second innings, allowing Ricky Ponting's men to snatch victory and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best of five series.
However, Flintoff backed his squad to bounce back in Perth, saying his team had proven over the past three years that it has the mental grit and determination required to claw its way back into any series.
"There's still that confidence and calmness that we've had throughout the trip. I think it's a side full of character, and the characters have to come out in this Test," Flintoff said.
"It's something we are very proud of as a team what we've achieved in the past three or four years, and we want to carry on doing that, carry on creating history. It would be creating history if we came back in this series and it's something we want to do."
"This side has created a lot of history over the past few years. We created a lot of history in a lot of countries, and to come back into this series now would be the ultimate."
"So there's a huge incentive, it's a very proud team and they want to give a good account of themselves. We came close in Adelaide but in this game you've got to go one further."
Flintoff said the squad would not dwell on its failure in Adelaide or the current series deficit, but rather focus solely on the Test match in Perth.
"We look at this Test match now, we are not looking back," he said.
"This third Test match is huge. We've got to get back into the series and then the last two (Tests) will take care of themselves. But this game we've got to look at almost in isolation…and hit them hard."
When asked about the make-up of England's final XI for the third Test, Flintoff remained tight-lipped.
"That's something we'll discuss this evening…we'll sit down and bounce ideas around," he said.
"The lads over the past few days have all put a claim in. Over the weekend (against Western Australia) the bowlers bowled really well, and in the nets today all the balls were hitting the nets hard. Everyone's staking a claim, everyone wants to play in this Test match."
Flintoff, who underwent surgery in July to fix his troublesome left ankle, bowled well during training on Tuesday, and dismissed any doubts surrounding his fitness.
"I had surgery and came back from it, and I probably naively thought that everything was going to be fine and I'd get no pain again ever in my life," he said.
"Playing back-to-back Test matches is tough, I've not done it for a while and I did get some discomfort, but it's been all checked out and I've bowled since. It's not something that I'm concerned about."
