Peter Crouch scored twice as England's squad players staked their claims in a 3-0 win over Belarus in their final World Cup qualifying Group 6 match at Wembley.
The Tottenham striker netted his 17thand 18thgoals in 35 appearances for his country, with 18 of those caps coming from the bench but 16 of the goals coming from his 17 starts.
The first-choice Emile Heskey was rested and his record of seven goals in 57 England appearances pales in comparison to Crouch's, while good performances from Shaun-Wright Phillips - who also scored - and substitutes David Beckham and James Milner gave coach Fabio Capello a welcome headache ahead of the finals.
In the absence of the injured Wayne Rooney, England fielded a new-look strike pairing of Crouch and Gabriel Agbonlahor.
It reaped dividend soon enough as Agbonlahor raced on to a superb through-ball from former Aston Villa team-mate Gareth Barry and cut it back to Crouch, who slid in to scuff the ball past Belarus keeper Yuri Zhevnov.
The visiting side were not discouraged though, winning a corner soon afterwards and going close when Sergei Kornilenko put the ball just wide at the near post.
The hosts had good chances to extend their lead, but Crouch headed Frank Lampard's excellent corner wide while Agbonlahor was denied by a smart stop from Zhevnov as he raced clear down the right midway through the first half.
From that point on, though, England went off the boil as Bernd Stange's side stroked the ball around nicely and had Capello's group winners on the back foot without really testing stand-in keeper Ben Foster.
It took until the latter stages of the half for England to reawaken from their slumber, with a renewed sense of urgency seeing Crouch's diving header go just wide after a quick-fire, right-wing counter led by Glen Johnson and Aaron Lennon.
The second half was much better from England, as they bossed possession and forced Belarus to the edge of their penalty box with incessant pressure.
Lampard forced a good stop from Zhevnov with a dipping free-kick two minutes after the restart, while Wright-Phillips, working manfully on the left, started to pose problems for the opposing defence with his direct running.
Beckham entered the fray on the hour mark and his first contribution was to play a corner low to Wright-Phillips who, from the edge of the box, drilled a low shot that zipped under the outstretched arm of the culpable Zhevnov and into the bottom right for the Manchester City winger's fifth goal for England.
England sat back afterwards and Belarus almost hit back with a quick reply, but a superb one-touch move and top-right finish by Sergei Omelyanchuk was denied by a brilliant, one-handed reflex save from Foster.
Normal service soon resumed for Foster, who followed up his spectacular stop with two shaky moments in failing to dominate at set-pieces.
But it was England who got the next goal, another opportunistic strike from Crouch who slid the ball home from close range after anticipating the rebound off Zhevnov as substitute Carlton Cole fired a low shot from the right.
England slipped into training-ground mode, mesmerising Belarus with neat passing and movement, as they looked to help Crouch to a hat-trick by getting it wide as often as possible for early crosses into the box.
They hit the woodwork twice in a minute late on, with Capello's hungry subs following Crouch in staking a claim for more involvement in South Africa.
James Milner got forward from left-back, dribbled clear of the final defender and fired across the keeper only to see his finish rebound off the inside of the far post and across the line to safety, while Beckham drilled a low shot off the other stick moments later.
The victory means England finish Group 6 six points clear of second-placed Ukraine, second only to European Champions Spain in the UEFA section, with a goal-difference of +28, the best in qualification.

 

 

> Posted by: Iconic Magazine