Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey insists his England pairing with Manchester United's Wayne Rooney will improve.

Heskey was reunited with the Manchester United striker for the World Cup opener with the United States which ended in a 1-1 draw.

It was the first time the pair had started an international together since the qualifying clash with the Ukraine in Dnipro eight months ago.

Rooney has often looked at his most potent alongside the Aston Villa player, who set up Steven Gerrard's goal against USA.

Heskey is confident the pair will hit it off again in Cape Town against the Algerians.

The 32-year-old told the London Standard: "The more you play with any player, the more you get an understanding with them and that is the case with Wayne.

"We work together on the training field and we are well prepared to perform better if we get the chance again.

"I take the positives from that performance and try and take it into training and then the next game.

"I thought we really got at them in attack and created a few chances. They weren't comfortable with the way we played as we caused them problems and we can do that again."