PAUL COLLINGWOOD believes Scotland will shake-off the disappointment of defeat against England to target a first-ever World Cup victory when they face Afghanistan later this week.

The Scots failed to create the major shock they had craved as Eoin Morgan's under-fire English held their nerve to carve out an easy 119-run win in Christchurch yesterday.

But assistant coach Collingwood insists Preston Mommsen's men are already focused on their next Pool A challenge in Dunedin on Thursday.

The former England captain said: "We have a quick turnaround but the next game is a huge one for us.

"The guys were hurting after the England game but we'll regroup and make sure we give it a huge go against Afghanistan.

"We know them well and the guys have played them many times and know what they have to do to overcome them."

Collingwood acknowledged that their defeat to England was a missed opportunity to write a piece of cricket history.

The English went into the clash on the back of two heavy defeats to Australia and New Zealand and when skipper Mommsen won the toss and elected to bowl first Scotland had the chance they wanted to pile the pressure on the Auld Enemy.

Instead, Moeen Ali and Ian Bell staged a massive first-wicket stand of 172 to ease early nerves and put the Scots on the back foot.

Ali went on to stroke a match-winning 128 from just 107 balls while Bell (54) and Morgan (46) hoisted England's tally to 303-8.

It would have been higher but for a superb fight-back from the Scottish bowlers who recovered from an indifferent start to trouble their rivals.

Josh Davey was the pick with four middle order scalps while Majid Haq eventually removed Ali to become Scotland's leading wicket-taker in all forms of the game.

The Scots needed a substantial early partnership to have any chance of a pulling off a sensational run-chase but Calum MacLeod, earning his 100th cap, fell for just four while Freddie Coleman and Matt Machan also went cheaply as the underdogs slumped to 54-3.

Kyle Coetzer offered the only sustained resistance with a battling 71 which included 11 boundaries but the next highest scorer was Mommsen with a modest 26.

In the end Scotland were bowled out for 184 with almost eight overs of their allocation remaining, Steven Finn claiming 3-26.

"We could have bowled better up front because we had a chance to put them under pressure," added Collingwood.

"That opening partnership was crucial for England because it's never easy playing the Associate nations - it's always a potential banana skin.

"We fought back well with the ball because at one stage I thought they were going to get over 350.

"But to win games of cricket at a World Cup you have to have the majority of your players having their best day and unfortunately there just weren't enough right on top of their game.

"A lot of this is new to the players and hopefully game by game we'll get better and better.

"The players are still buzzing and still enjoying it but we're not here just to enjoy being at a World Cup - we're here to win games of cricket.

"Now we'll train hard and hopefully get more players to perform on the day against Afghanistan."

The Scots will look for a repeat of their most recent clash with the Afghans whom they dismissed for just 63 to win by 150 runs in Abu Dhabi last month.