Duncan Fletcher believes his history-making side can continue their progress and become the first England side in 40 years to win a Test series in South Africa.
Having completed the first whitewash over West Indies since 1928 with their 10-wicket victory at The Oval on Saturday and become only the third England side ever to claim seven successive Test triumphs, the 2004 vintage have already guaranteed their place in English cricket folklore.
Fletcher's coaching style, though, is to raise the barrier each time and he now believes they will set out for a five-Test series in South Africa this winter with the confidence to win for the first time since MJK Smith led England to a 1-0 victory in 1964-5.
England's tour of South Africa in 1999-2000 was Fletcher's first tour in charge and they were beaten 2-1 after choosing an experimental squad including several uncapped players - including present captain Michael Vaughan.
But the side has developed immensely since then and Fletcher is now hopeful they can get a result, stressing: ''I can honestly say I'm a lot more confident about the side and it's a lot more balanced than the last time we went out there in 1999.
''We had some very good players then, but we had some untried players who were just thrown in. Now we're going out there and I feel we have a side that is a total package and is looking pretty solid.
''We're expecting to win when we go to South Africa. They are a very good side and like any side they are not going to play well all the time. I think there's some very good cricketers there, but we have good batters and a good bowling attack that should bowl well on those wickets.''
Fletcher's confident statement follows a perfect summer of results having soundly beaten New Zealand and now West Indies, an achievement Fletcher believes ranks as high as anything he has achieved in his five years in the job.
But there was still room for improvement and he was unhappy with the performance at Old Trafford, when only a record-breaking chase on the final day prevented West Indies claiming victory.
''I don't know if I'm a perfectionist, but when we arrived at The Oval the other day I got them all together and told them it wasn't good enough at Old Trafford,'' he revealed.
''It was mainly to make sure they weren't getting complacent and I did say to them that I had to be hyper-critical because if I wasn't then we weren't going to go forward.
''You can quite easily just sit there and say 'we're doing well guys,' and suddenly things go wrong, but I think you have to be critical all the time and look at the areas that aren't going quite right.
''The most important thing about this summer has been our consistency. That's been our problem - instead of just having a morning session when we've played badly we've had a day and a morning session and you can't afford to do that.
''You can get away with playing badly for an hour or so but not longer than that and at Old Trafford we didn't play well for two days, but managed to switch to top gear and play well for the final two days.''
As ever, Fletcher is looking to improve on the side to make them more competitive in the coming years. Only Ashley Giles was over 30 years old in The Oval Test but Fletcher is looking for improvement from his young side.
''I do believe we still have to find another all-rounder in the side,'' stressed Fletcher.
''We need a bowling all-rounder to help us bat a bit more in depth and that's something that I think we should be looking at, but outside of that I think the balance is pretty good.
''The really positive thing about all this is that in this side at the Oval there was only one guy over 30 so there's a lot of people in that side that can play together for the next four or five years as a unit and get better and better, but I also know we can play better than that - I don't believe we're playing to our true ability yet.''
Of course improved results and history-making winning runs increase expectancy and only serve to increase the anticipation for next summer's Ashes series when England's fighting spirit and improved self-belief will be given the ultimate test.
Captain Vaughan still believes England are ''far from the finished article'' in comparison to Australia, while Fletcher is far too experienced to be even drawn on the issue until the challenges of the next few months are overcome.
''That's a long way down the line and there's a lot of cricket to be played before then and we've just got to make sure we look after things and improve from there,'' he added.
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