Flower: Seeds sown in Cardiff

Andy Flower has pin-pointed England's successful battle to save the first Test as the launchpad for their historic triumph at Lord's which secured an important early lead in the Ashes series.

Monday's 115-run triumph, their first against Australia at Lord's since 1934, has earned England a 1-0 advantage in the five-Test npower series - but only after they battled to prevent an almost certain defeat in the series opener at Cardiff.

"It was vitally important not to go 1-0 down so early in the series," explained England coach Flower. "Historically we've got poor records in the first Tests of series and we identified going into this series against Australia and just sneaked in and did something about it, and we've now turned around the record at Lord's."

He added: "The guys are proud of themselves but we've got a lot of work to do. We've got to re-group because sometimes you can get as distracted by winning as easily as you do by losing so we have to re-group this week as well and hit them hard come the first day at Edgbaston.

"Now we're ahead it doesn't guarantee anything for the rest of the series and we've got three hard matches ahead of us - we know we're playing the best side in the world and we've beaten them in just one Test match.

"We know they will regroup and come back hard at us and we've also got to take this opportunity to regroup and be ready to take the initiative again in the third Test match."

Before England assemble next week for back-to-back Tests at Edgbaston and Headingley, the selectors must first assess the injuries to key players before they announce their squad for Birmingham this weekend.

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff remains confident of being fit to continue his final series before retiring as a Test cricketer despite bowling through discomfort in his right knee to secure England's victory at Lord's.

England are equally optimistic about Durham seamer Graham Onions overcoming the elbow injury he sustained at Lord's, but influential batsman Kevin Pietersen remains a concern as he struggles to overcome Achilles tendon problems.

"He's been struggling quite badly with that Achilles injury for quite a period of time," admitted Flower. "He's got a couple of people he's going to be talking to and then the experts will make a decision on whether he's okay or not."