England players said the team remains on the right track yesterday as coach Wayne Bennett ponders whether to make changes following their opening Four Nations defeat.

An agonising 17-16 loss to holders New Zealand at Huddersfield on Saturday means Bennett’s men must beat both Scotland and world champions Australia to keep alive their hopes of a maiden Four Nations title.

Stand-off Gareth Widdop, who won his 20th cap against the Kiwis, insists England do not need to change much to get their campaign up and running.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted but we certainly showed some really good signs and we’ll be better for it,” the Halifax-born St George Illawarra captain said.

“There’s a few little things we need to fix up. We were in control for the first 20 or 25 minutes but our discipline and execution let us down a little bit so, if we fix that, we’ll be fine.

“In the end a field goal separated us. You can’t knock the effort of the boys or the commitment that we showed. It was outstanding.

“We’ve got Scotland this week so we’ve got to turn up on Tuesday, get our preparation right and train really well. We have to do the same again, stick to our processes and not really worry about the outcome.”

Wigan second rower John Bateman also believes there were more positives than negatives from England’s close-fought duel with New Zealand as they set their sights on Steve McCormack’s Bravehearts in the first part of a Four Nations double header on Saturday.

“The mood in the camp’s a bit down but we know what we’ve done and we know the positives we have to take out of it,” Bateman said.

“We definitely have the belief. You look at the passion and pride we’ve got — it’s always been there.

“It’s just little stuff that cost us — we didn’t touch the ball for the last 10 minutes of the first half and that’s when they scored.

“We fix that up and we can beat anyone. There’s no worry. We’ve got the players, we’ve got the coaching staff.

“Everyone knows what their job is, everyone knows what we need to do and we’ve got to do that next week against Scotland and then Australia.”