STAND-IN skipper Marcus Trescothick insisted last night that England possess the necessary spirit in the camp to quickly put their first defeat of the summer behind them, a 57 run reverse against the mighty Australians at Chester-le-Street.

With Michael Vaughan nursing a groin injury, Trescothick took over skipper duties and somewhat surprisingly decided to put Ricky Ponting's side in to bat.

The received wisdom in day-night games is if you win the toss you bat first. The Somerset left-hander chose to ignore that, and the decision looked folly with England on six for three in reply to Australia's 266 for five from their 50 overs.

A temporary fightback with a fourth wicket stand of 79 between Vikram Solanki and Andrew Flintoff only delayed the inevitable, as the Aussies cruised to victory with England finishing their 50 overs on 209 for nine.

With hindsight Trescothick admitted he should have batted first to set Australia a total under the lights at Riverside.

When asked if he made an mistake he said: "Yes quite possibly. I don't think the light has had much effect on what happened but the wicket deteriorated more than I expected.

"That was be the main reason for choosing to field first.

"Australia put a good score on the board. They put a lot of pressure on us early on - we lost early wickets and we were on the back foot all the way in.

"They've been pretty good for two games now. At Bristol they were pretty good. They were ready for the game and raring game. Today they've come out with the right result."

Trescothick said although the players were disappointed with the result, the determination was there in the camp to ensure the defeat was just a temporary blip after their superb start to the summer.

He said: "We've sat around and talked about the game afterwards. The confidence and spirit in the camp is good enough and really goes deeper than losing just one game - definitely."

One of the few plus points from the game was the performance of the evergreen Darren Gough, who followed an impressive bowling performance with his highest international one-day score of 46 not out.

The 34-year-old Yorkshire-born Essex paceman is still determined to make his presence felt at the World Cup in 2007 and showed that he still adds something to the England team.

"Darren Gough batted well but he's been working hard in the nets," said Trescothick. "He had an opportunity to spend time in the middle and he took his chance."

Aussie skipper Ponting was delighted with the improvement shown by his charges. He said: "It was a bit better for us tonight but we saw some signs of an improvement in the last game and this performance represented further progress.

"Our batting was good on a slow pitch and the opening bowlers were superb. Glenn McGrath, bowling at that pace and swinging the ball around, is an asset to any team and Andrew Symonds returned to take the man-of-the-match award.

"The guys have really stuck together after last weekend's defeats. We've got a couple of good performances under our belts and we're looking forward to Bangladesh on Saturday."

Man-of-the-match Symonds said: "It feels great to be back. I might be better off giving my Man-of-the-Match champagne to charity!"