ENGLAND Women's defender Casey Stoney insists reaching the World Cup semi-final with England is the best moment of her career so far.

The Basildon born centre-back came off the bench to shore up the Lionesses backline as they edged out host nation Canada 2-1 in a last-eight tie in Vancouver in the early hours of Sunday morning.

But 33-year-old Stoney was always confident of England reaching the semi-finals of the competition for the first time ever.

“I never had any seed of doubt and I knew this team was going to win the game,” said the former Runwell Primary School pupil.

“We have 23 fantastic players here and we are stronger than we have ever been.

“I was just thankful to be on the pitch and even if I hadn’t have got on the pitch, this is a real squad effort.

“It’s taken all of us to get here and I’m just so thankful and so proud of these girls for getting us over the line.

“It’s the best feeling I’ve ever felt in my career, it's just incredible and I'm quite emotional about it too.”

Stoney, who is currently playing in her third World Cup, replaced Karen Carney in stoppage time of the quarter final clash and helped England hang on to their narrow advantage.

England had earlier opened the scoring after just 11 minutes when Jodie Taylor, who was making her first start of the competition just nine weeks after knee surgery, capitalised on an error from Canada defender Lauren Sesselmann's to impressively fire home.

Three minutes later, England doubled their lead – in front of more than 54,000 fans - when Lucy Bronze headed home Fara Williams' free-kick via the underside of the crossbar.

Canada hit back just before the break when Christine Sinclair netted after an error from goalkeeper Karen Bardsley.

But England were still able to hang on and will now face reigning champions Japan in the semi-finals in the early hours of Thursday morning.