Paterson kicked five penalties against England last year

Paterson said: "Some people might say that Twickenham is no longer the fortress it has been, but an away win is a hard, hard thing to achieve.

"And that is definitely the case against an England team which will be desperate to impress their new coach.

"They still have world class players, and it would be foolish to write them off because they have had a bad year."

Interview: Scotland captain Chris Paterson

Interview: Scotland head coach Frank Hadden

Brian Ashton is England's latest head coach, following a terrible run of results under Andy Robinson.

But Scotland, who scrapped to a 18-12 victory over the world champions at Murrayfield last year, have not won in London since 1983.

SIX NATIONS BLOG It will be tough without the injured Jason White - I was in the last team to win at Twickenham and that was a long time ago! BBC Scotland's John Beattie More on our Six Nations blog

Paterson kicked five penalties in the victory last year and the skipper is hoping for another good day.

"Even though we all recognise that it is going to be a much harder task away from home, that result has to give us at least a glimmer of confidence," he added.

"I remember us talking last year about how important it is to get a good start to the tournament, and that's what I'll be stressing this year."

Scotland will be without a number of important players for the trip but Paterson has been impressed by the way the squad is shaping up.

"With the number of injuries we have to key players - like Jason White, Allister Hogg, Chris Cusiter, Mike Blair and Simon Webster - there was a danger that things could have tailed off a little bit, but the standard has been as high, if not higher, than it had been before," he continued.

"I think that has put us in a good frame of mind for the next few weeks."

White will miss all of this year's competition but Hogg, Cusiter, Blair and Webster are all expected to feature at some stage of the tournament.

Nathan Hines is also unavailable due to injury but it is hoped his foot problem will heal in time for Scotland's second match of the championship against Wales on 10 February.