Rooney at the double as England enjoy comfortable win

WITH the 2016 European Championships expanding to feature 24 teams instead of the usual 16, perhaps England have stumbled across a formula to end their lack of tournament success. Get drawn in a group that resembles the old Home Nations.

All four domestic sides could find themselves featuring in France, and on the evidence of last night’s emphatic 3-1 win over Scotland, not to mention last year’s equally frenetic success over the same opponents at Wembley, Roy Hodgson’s side clearly have a liking for home opposition.

Faced with a Scotland side playing with the same high tempo and mistake rate that characterises life in the Premier League, England’s players had too much poise and composure and duly ran out comfortable winners. If only life was so simple against a side that knows how to keep the ball.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s headed opener was a fitting reward for England’s first-half superiority, and when Wayne Rooney doubled the visitors’ lead with another headed strike two minutes after the restart, the game was as good as up.

Andrew Robertson’s stabbed finish briefly gave Scotland hope with seven minutes left, but England immediately swept down the other end and the best passing move of the night ended with Rooney driving home his 46th international goal. After three in the space of four days, the England skipper now needs just three more to equal Sir Bobby Charlton’s scoring record.

It might have been billed as a friendly, but the reality of a meeting between the oldest rivals in international football meant it was never going to be treated as such by either set of players, let alone the 5,000-or-so England supporters who headed across the border to sample the uniquely intimidating atmosphere of Celtic Park.

For once, an international outing outside of a European Championship or World Cup qualifying campaign actually meant something, both to a resurgent Scotland, who have realistic hopes of qualifying for Euro 2016 under former Middlesbrough manager Gordon Strachan, and a stuttering England, who continue to cruise through their own qualifying campaign without providing compelling evidence that the traumas of this summer’s World Cup are behind them.

Roy Hodgson used the occasion to cast his eye over a handful of players who have impressed at club level in the early months of the season, and that meant a rare start for Northumbrian Fraser Forster, who was only really tested once before he was beaten, and a recall after a two-and-a-half year international exile for Teessider Stewart Downing, who was a peripheral figure before he was replaced by Adam Lallana at the interval.

Downing has been something of a revelation in his new central midfield role for West Ham, but restored to the England ranks for the first time since May 2012, the 30-year-old found himself back where he began with Middlesbrough, stationed on the left flank. It was a strange move from Hodgson, who had talked glowingly of Downing’s new role at the weekend, but who nevertheless passed up the chance to see the midfielder in it.

In fairness, Downing spent most of the first half alternating between a left-wing berth as part of a 4-4-2 system and a slightly more central position as the visitors switched to 4-3-3, and it was noticeable that England’s players appeared more comfortable in either formation than they were as part of a midfield diamond in the first half of Saturday’s win over Slovenia.

Their positive intent was apparent within the opening five minutes, with Gary Cahill heading Downing’s early corner narrowly over the crossbar and Danny Welbeck drilling a low shot straight at Scottish goalkeeper David Marshall after a brisk break upfield ended with Rooney releasing his former Manchester United team-mate into space.

England’s early flurry confirmed their young players were not going to be overawed by an occasion that was every bit as cacophonous as had been anticipated, but any notion that it would lead to an open, free-flowing game was quickly dispelled.

A Scotland side featuring seven Championship players might have lacked finesse, but there was a predictable abundance of energy and appetite within the home ranks, and with the Celtic pairing of Scott Brown and Charlie Mulgrew scampering around furiously at the heart of midfield, England’s creative players were never afforded much time or space in possession.

For the majority of the first half, that prevented them from fashioning an opening, but Jack Wilshere was already growing in influence when he found himself with a pocket of room from which to fashion a ball into the area shortly after the half-hour mark.

His floated delivery was pitch-perfect, and it enabled his Arsenal team-mate, Oxlade-Chamberlain, to ghost beyond his marker, Steven Whittaker, to glance home a close-range header.

Remarkably, it was Wilshere’s first direct assist for his country, coming in his 26th appearance on the international stage. For what seems like years, the 22-year-old has been touted as England’s midfield saviour. Perhaps he is finally warming to his role.

He also had a hand in England’s second goal, which came 93 seconds after the break, although the success owed much to the failings of Robertson, who miscued an attempted clearance across the face of his own penalty area.

Wilshere’s drilled strike caught the Hull defender unawares, and his errant touch looped invitingly for Rooney, who leapt to head home from the edge of the six-yard box.

Former Sunderland goalkeeper Craig Gordon had come on at half-time, so his first job was to pick the ball out of the Scotland net. Even so, the sight of the 31-year-old back in Scotland colours was still remarkable given the plethora of injury problems that threatened to kill off his career during his time on Wearside.

At the other end, Forster was finally called into action for the first time as he tipped Russell Martin’s goalbound header over the crossbar, but the England goalkeeper could do nothing when Robertson stabbed home following Johnny Russell’s driving run down the wing.

No matter. England duly swept upfield and after James Milner released Lallana on a run to the byline, the substitute pulled the ball back for an onrushing Rooney to rifle home.