Gareth Southgate has stressed that England need to carry on developing "strength of character" and "resilience" as they seek to make an impact at the 2018 World Cup.

The Three Lions have flown to Volgograd from their base at Repino on the Gulf of Finland after training on Sunday to finalise their plans for Monday's Group G game against Tunisia.

Expectations for England are relatively low in Russia given a decade of disappointing results at tournament level as well as Southgate's selection of a young team.

However, the former Middlesbrough manager - who famously missed a penalty for England at Euro 1996 - is hopeful that his players will go on to develop a mental fortitude during the tournament that may have been lacking in previous squads.

"I hope my own experiences are providing them with some context," Southgate told BBC Sport. "I hope the messages we are giving them are developing a style of play they believe in and that they are building the strength of character to withstand some of the difficult moments we will definitely have to go through in a tournament.

"Our first objective is to qualify from the group and we have to be prepared for the fact that might happen smoothly or it might have to go into the 89th or 94th minute of the third game.

"For the first five minutes of the opening game anything can happen but it is not going to decide whether we go through in the group or not. We have got to be mentally strong enough not to get carried away if we start the game really well and also if we have a setback in the first five minutes of a game, an injury or something like that. That is the resilience you have got to have."

After the Tunisia clash, England will go on to face Panama and Belgium in their other Group G ties.