England's Paul Collingwood points his bat at his teammates after reaching 50 runs during their World Cup cricket Super Eights victory over Ireland in Georgetown on Friday. - ReutersGEORGETOWN, Guyana, (Reuters):

ENGLAND ARE aware they must improve to have any chance of reaching the World Cup semi-finals after another patchy win over Ireland in their Super Eights clash on Friday.

The 48-run victory was largely due to a quickfire 90 from Paul Collingwood which boosted England's score to 266 for seven after they had looked in trouble at 113 for four.

Some tight bowling, especially from part-time off-spinner Michael Vaughan, restricted Ireland's chase in the second stage game, but the main attack of James Anderson and Sajid Mahmood was again too inaccurate.

Andrew Flintoff, who recovered from a stomach bug to hit 43 and take four wickets, said the side knew there was a lot of hard work to be done.

"None of us are playing to our full potential. Probably in this World Cup it is about peaking at the right times," Flintoff said.

"I only scored 40. It'd be nice tokick on and score a few more but having batted in the middle I feel a lot better where I am at now than I did before the innings.

"We have got big hitters. As yet we've probably not fired as a group together. That's something we are striving to do.

"We are also maybe not bowling as well as we'd like at times," added Flintoff, who was stripped of the vice-captaincy and suspended from the Canada group game after a late night drinking session.

England now fly to Antigua where they meet Sri Lanka in their next Super Eight game on Wednesday.

Mahela Jayawardene's team lost to South Africa by one wicket on Wednesday, but nearly pulled off an amazing comeback thanks to four wickets in four balls from paceman Lasith Malinga.

"They've got some fine players in their team," Flintoff said of Sri Lanka.

"We are going to have to up it that little bit more if we want to get over the line against them."

Vaughan, who made the World Cup after recovering from a long-standing knee problem and a hamstring injury, was not expected to bowl much at this tournament but surprised himself against Ireland with one for 34 off nine overs.

He combined well with left-arm spinner Monty Panesar in the middle period against Ireland and their tight bowling ensured the game slipped away from the associate nation.

Vaughan's form with the ball, if not with the bat where he continues to struggle, coul England's selection plans.