Mason Mount feels England laid down a marker against Hungary and showed they are "coming back stronger" from their Euro 2020 heartache.
The Three Lions eased to a comfortable 4-0 victory in their World Cup qualification clash in Budapest – although the result was marred by racist abuse from the stands.
Mount set up Raheem Sterling to open the scoring after half-time before goals from Harry Kane, Harry Maguire and Declan Rice sewed up a fine win for Gareth Southgate's side in their first outing since losing the Euro 2020 final to Italy on penalties.
Hungary for more! pic.twitter.com/yFir4d8c9W — Mason Mount (@masonmount_10) September 2, 2021
They returned to action with a bang in Budapest despite the hostilities, with Mount insisting they have put a marker down to be better than in the summer.
"I don't think we have ever been scared of anything," the Chelsea midfielder replied when asked if the display in difficult surroundings was the coming of age performance for this England team.
"Now we are growing in confidence. It is not over-confidence. We know what we have got in the team.
"Obviously to come off a final and what happened in the summer, this was a massive, massive game for us to put a stamp down that we are coming back, coming back stronger and with even more focus and a stronger desire to succeed and do well and do even more going forward after what we felt in the summer.
"This was a massive win and especially in the group as it put us more ahead. We won't take a breather and we have two more games this camp and we are obviously very focused and ready to keep pushing."
It was arguably a visibly tiring Hungary team – as opposed to a reaction to the negativity from the home fans – that saw England improve as the game progressed.
But Mount felt that having such partisan support for the opposition only helped England play their natural game.
"When the whole stadium is against us we grow," he added.
"As players we spoke about it and knew it would be a hostile environment and we revel in the opportunities and we want to show what we can do on the ball and make the stadium silent with how we are playing and what we are doing and we showed that in the second half.
"We had a killer instinct in front of goal with the first and then bang with the next three. It killed the game off and then gave them no hope.
"As soon as we scored and what happened in the corner flag (missiles were thrown at the players), you could tell within the atmosphere that something was going to be thrown or something would happen and luckily no-one got hurt or anything."
