It is nothing against Peter Crouch but Jill Scott wonders whether the dressing room nickname she has carried for the past decade could do with a little updating. “That goes back to about 2005 – ‘Crouchy,’” she says. “I can’t shake it off. When I was at Everton I got ‘Fellaini’ as well; I think it’s just whoever is a tall midfielder or striker. I might have to try and go with ‘Harry Kane’ next.”

In truth, the England women’s team have written their own names in history over the past month and there is certainly no pigeonholing Scott, who at almost 6ft was an unorthodox presence in what was generally an advanced right-sided role during the World Cup. Normality will strike on Sunday: Scott is likely to revert to her favoured central-midfield position for her club, Manchester City, when they play Birmingham City as the Women’s Super League resumes to the highest pitch of interest in its five-year history.

“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t tired,” says Scott of a squad that has had scant respite since landing at Heathrow on Monday. “I think our bodies and minds would like a couple of weeks just to recover. At the same time we want to keep the interest growing and if we can get good crowds to the games this weekend then it would be fantastic. The girls and staff at our clubs have been working hard while we’ve been away, so we want to get out there and join them.”

Scott was back in training with City on Wednesday but there was a more stately pace on Thursday morning in the form of a breakfast reception with Prince William at Kensington Palace. The prince, whose relationship with the team has been close over the past decade, has maintained a running joke with Scott since she attempted to slide tackle him during a kickabout eight years ago and she says that his backing constitutes something more than a standard photocall.

“He came to see us at St George’s Park before the tournament and some people might have looked at it as a sort of tick-box exercise for him but his support’s been great throughout,” she says. “He’s been texting Mark [Sampson], he’s rung the squad, he’s watched all the games and inviting us here is the icing on the cake really.”

Coffee and croissants with the prince having been taken, Scott is stretching out on the Royal Household football pitch, watching her team-mates kick balls around with a group of local schoolgirls and reflecting on the bronze medal that salved the wounds inflicted by the late semi-final defeat by Japan.

“If you asked us how we got ourselves up for that game [against Germany] now I probably wouldn’t have an answer,” she says. “The day after the Japan game, everyone was so down. We’d wanted to make the final so much and we were mentally tired, physically drained. I remember thinking the day before the Germany game ‘I don’t know how we’re going to get through 90 minutes’ – and then obviously it went to 120.

“I think we’ve just got a really strong set of women here, who really wanted to go out there and succeed. It shows that if your mind wants something so much, your body can achieve it.”

Scott believes that there is a need to bottle what has been created within the national team. Speculation – mainly of the idle variety – has arisen about the future of the impressive Sampson but, with England sure to be among the favourites for Euro 2017, his remains a work in progress.

“It’s very important that he stays,” she says. “We’re starting to build momentum, he’s set out a certain way of working with us and I think there’s a lot more to come from him. He’s contracted for a few more years, so hopefully we can continue as we are.

Prince William meets the England team after the squad won bronze at the Women’s World Cup Guardian

“We’ve come together more as a team under Mark. He focuses a lot on work off the pitch and we’ve got a lot of our fight from the meetings that we’ve had. You could see how much we wanted to battle for each other and the girls’ determination was one of the pleasing things, looking back. I think Mark is responsible for that. It’s something he chose as a key focus – and it paid off.”

There will be pressure to create a lasting, wider legacy and, while that can be a nebulous term, Scott says this summer’s tournament will have deeper long-term effects than earlier events, whose afterglows burned fleetingly.

“Just look at this now,” she motions to the children, aged between seven and 12, playing in front of her. “Twenty years ago you’d have been at an event like this and seen two girls here out of 40 children. The difference is huge. We always say after tournaments that we need to keep the interest going and the question is always ‘how?’.

“It starts with club games, promoting them and getting bums on seats, but it also starts right here, today, getting the girls involved and meeting the needs of everyone who wants to play. I think that this time it will be different – I really do.”