Brent Hills hopes he can replace Hope Powell as England women's manager "It was strange for everyone when we met up on Tuesday and Hope wasn't with us," said Brent Hills, Powell's assistant since 2002 and now the interim coach following his boss's sacking in the wake of her team's fall from grace at July's European Championship finals in Sweden. After finishing runners-up at Euro 2009 England, the fourth-highest ranked team heading into this year's tournament, finished bottom of their group with just one point - their worst showing since 2001, when the development of the team under Powell was still in its embryonic stages. "We severely underperformed as a group at the Euros," admitted Hills, "but the girls are determined to show they are much better than those performances suggested. I've told them this is a new chapter for the England team and this is their chance to play a big part in it. It is also a chance for the temporary man in charge. With a permanent replacement for the departed coach set to be named next month, Hills will send his players out at the Goldsands Stadium hoping that a victory over Belarus, coupled with another over Turkey at Portsmouth next Thursday, can successfully complete his own application for the job. Hills and the America-based but Liverpool-born Paul Riley are the only self-declared candidates, though the Football Association says there has been a "high level of interest" in the job. Whoever takes on the position will have to maintain Powell's outstanding qualifying record to reach the World Cup, England having gone unbeaten in 30 world and Euro qualifiers since 2002. There should be no great problems in stretching that run to 32 games. England have slipped three places to 11th in the world rankings, but Belarus are 38th and Turkey 65th. Hills, however, warned: "If you keep being told you should easily win games that can lead to complacency - and complacency can kill you." The coach has named a similar squad to the one that contested the Euro finals, though significantly he has added Liverpool striker Natasha Dowie, scorer of 18 goals in 18 games this season.