England manager Roy Hodgson told ITV Sport he "never lost faith" in his team as they bounced back to winning ways with a 2-0 win over Switzerland in their opening Euro 2016 qualifier in Basel.
The Three Lions went into their first competitive fixture since their group-stage exit from the World Cup finals in Brazil, but the experienced coach refused to get carried away by an improved performance from his youthful team.
"I've never lost faith and I was just pleased to see the boys play well," Hodgson said. "The way we approached the game was exactly what we wanted and we got our reward for once.
"I think we made hard work of it because there was so many chances to score goals before we eventually got the one that we needed, but it was a good performance away from home against once of the better teams in the group.
"In the first half, they were content to let us dominate and you need that first goal to open people up, but I thought we could have aggravated the score long before Danny [Welbeck] finally did."
Hodgson's experiment with a midfield diamond was partially successful, but there were question marks over the performance of Arsenal's Jack Wilshere in the holding role and Aston Villa's Fabian Delph, with the England boss conceding there is plenty of room for improvement over the course of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
"We can do better," he added. "You can't expect players in their early games or even making their debuts to make all the right decisions and not show some naivety from time to time. There are areas we can work on and we have a couple of years to do so."
Hodgson also revealed that two-goal hero Danny Welbeck has told him that his best position is as a central striker for England.
Welbeck's versatility has been utilised in the past, with England and Manchester United playing him on the flanks, but Hodgson revealed the new Arsenal striker has repeatedly told him where he feels he can contribute most.
"I speak to him often and often I've heard him say -- I've asked him what his best position is -- centre-forward, but he understands fully that position wasn't available to him in the past in an England shirt," he said.
"Others have got in the team before him. He's understood the need to do the job elsewhere. We changed the formation towards the end of the game and he was pushed wide and Raheem [Sterling] on the other side.
"He's never complained. He's always said he'd play where I wanted him to play, but I've never been left in doubt that he wanted to play centrally."
