Mills kept his cool against Argentina (Allsport).

By John Curtis, PA Sport, Kobe

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Danny Mills believes that England proved against Argentina that no team in the World Cup will be able to rile them into losing their cool - whatever the level of provocation.

Mills was spat at and elbowed by the Argentinians who clearly targeted him as someone who might retaliate given the question mark placed over his temperament going into the finals.

But the Leeds United defender never looked like losing his head and the same composure was shown by his team-mates in the face of the gamesmanship and ugly challenges they had to put up with during their 1-0 win in the Sapporo Dome on Friday.

Mills said: "Argentina are well known for some of the games they get up to and some of the psychology they try and put onto other teams, but that's gone now and the lads dealt with it.

"Argentina are renowned for their gamesmanship. It's something you have to cope with and we coped with it very well.

"We've seen it for the last untold number of tournaments with the South American teams. Their temperament is volatile.

"They are fantastic players but they do like to play on the gamesmanship side of things and come very close to the line.

"All that you can do is walk away. We've shown now that whatever any team throws at us that we've learnt a lot from the lessons of past experiences and we've shown great control.

"In big games especially you just have to stay focused on the game in hand. You just have to ignore what goes on and let the referee deal with it. If he doesn't see it, then so be it."

Mills had vowed before the tournament to clean up his act after having the worst disciplinary record of any English player in the Premiership in 2001-2002 with two red cards and 11 yellows - and so far he has been as good as his word.

He said: "There was a lot of talk about me and whether I should be out here.

"I've had more than my fair share of doubters. Plenty of people thought that the way I played the game meant I could not be successful at this level.

"But I went out there determined not to let anyone down. I said that I was going to try and learn the lessons of the past and hopefully I have shown that I've learnt one or two lessons.

"I'm sure, in the future at some point, that I'll make mistakes again but as long as I am trying to do the right things, that's all I can do."

As for his footballing ability, Mills was always convinced that he could grab his chance with both hands once Gary Neville's broken toe meant that the right-back berth was up for grabs.

Mills said: "I've never doubted my own ability and if I got the chance I knew I was confident enough that I could make a success of it."

Now he is optimistic that England will be able to cope with the heat of Osaka and collect the single point they need from Wednesday's game with Nigeria to reach the second phase.

Mills said: "We will have to deal with the heat. We can't hide out there. It's going to be the hottest game we've played in so far but we will try and play our normal game and do the same things we did against Argentina.

"It will not be a problem lifting ourselves after the Argentina game. We need another big performance and, if we top the group, it will breed even more confidence and give us spirit to go on from there."