STEPH HOUGHTON was fully aware yesterday of how inspirational the England squad were to young girls in Britain following their comeback victory over Norway.

Houghton’s equaliser and a thunderbolt from Lucy Bronze cancelled out Solveig Gulbrandsen’s opener and set up a World Cup quarter-final match against hosts Canada on Saturday.

The Lionesses became the first senior England side to win a knockout match at a tournament since 2006, while also making history by winning their first knockout match at a World Cup.

“As a squad we know how many sacrifices we have made to get into this position,” Houghton told FATV.

“We said at the start of the tournament we wanted to inspire a nation, we want to inspire young girls to play football.

“Credit to everybody involved. We showed a lot of character, we showed a lot of passion to wear the England shirt.”

Manager Mark Sampson made similar comments before the tournament and with each victory, the team is adding more supporters to an increasing list.

He said back in May: “Look at the position we’re in now: we’ve got professional players, professional coaches, all these aspects that are helping the game grow.

“Our players know that responsibility and would love, love to be the ones who bring that to the game and be the ones that in 20 years’ time people will be citing as the reason they started playing football.

“But you don’t just do that by winning, you’ve also got to do that in a way in which you play the game and allow people to get behind you.”

Houghton’s headed goal fired England back into the match and gave the side much needed confidence, after being outplayed for the majority of the match.

“We needed it,” she said. “We needed a bit of a confidence boost.

“As soon as it went in, you saw a totally different England side. We really got a hold of the game, especially the last half-hour.

“I thought we were tremendous in terms of frustrating Norway, controlling the rhythm and tempo and seeing the game out.

“It’s credit to every single member of the squad because we showed great character over the 90 minutes.

“We know how determined we are to stay in [the World Cup] for the long haul.”