Captain Kate Walsh admits the clean sheet against Spain provides England with the perfect foundations on which to build their European Hockey Championship campaign.
Many of the side were London 2012 bronze medallists with Team GB and they began their Pool B campaign with a 3-0 victory in Belgium with central defender Walsh on the scoresheet.
The 33-year-old was hit in the face in the opening match of the Olympics and broke her jaw but battled through to lead her troops onto the podium.
And after seeing them block out the Spaniards, ranked 14th in the world, Walsh was encouraged ahead of their second game of the championships against Germany on Sunday.
“There have been a few practice games where we've shipped a lot of goals and tried to 'score one more',” said Walsh.
“But being a central defender, I'd like to shore things up a bit at the back.
Walsh was joined on the scoresheet by Hannah Macleod and Lily Owsley as England looked to play a more expansive game under coach Jason Lee, who led Team GB’s men to fourth in London.
And with gold the target, last achieved in a European Championships in Belgium 22 years ago, Walsh insists it was a positive start.
“Scoring a couple of early goals settled everybody's nerves and it was nice to be so dominant, especially in the first half,” she added.
Elsewhere in Pool B, Scotland’s women were on the end of a narrow defeat against Germany, who emerged 1-0 winners.
Amy Gibson had a superb game in goal for the Scots, who could have snatched an equaliser late on through Nikki Kidd.
© Sportsbeat 2013