England are bidding to register their best ever start to a qualifying campaign by chalking up a fourth successive win in Minsk - after the triumphs over Andorra, Croatia and Kazakhstan.

Fabio Capello's side will be favourites to triumph in the Dinamo stadium - but Defoe, who scored as a substitute against Kazakhstan, is adamant they will pay their opponents full respect.

The Portsmouth striker said: "The lads are confident. You can imagine after the Croatian game last month that everyone was buzzing. We want to keep it going and got another result at the weekend.

"We will be watching the videos on Belarus, so everyone in their minds will know exactly what they are good at and what they are not good at.

"No game at this level is easy. On Saturday we had to be patient - and once the first goal had gone in, we went on from there.

"We won't under-estimate them, but if we work hard and pass the ball like we can do we should get the three points."

Defoe believes England have many reasons to be confident.

"Everything is looking good - the way we are playing, the whole set-up, the whole preparation before games is fantastic - and we just want to keep it going.

"Everyone is confident now. We don't want to get complacent now and we just want to keep winning games.

"We've got a massive goal difference now, but it doesn't matter how many goals we score. As long as you get the three points, that is the crucial thing."

Defoe produced a clinical piece of finishing to put the seal on England's weekend win but insists his goal was just the icing on the cake.

He said: "I was itching to get on. When I came on, the lads had done the hard work. I just managed to get in behind their defence - and when you get the chance, you've just got to take it."