WITH Steve McClaren facing a selection dilemma ahead of Wednesday's vital Euro 2008 qualifying clash with Russia, Michael Owen last night insisted that his relationship with Emile Heskey was a guarantee of goals.

Heskey ended a three-year international exile in Saturday's 3-0 win over Israel and, while he might not have scored himself, his physical presence clearly unsettled an Israeli defence that had restricted England's strikers to a handful of chances in March's goalless draw in Tel Aviv.

Owen's second-half strike, a rasping 20-yard drive that doubled England's lead, means the Newcastle striker has now scored in 12 of the last 13 games in which he has been partnered by Heskey.

And while Peter Crouch is available to face Russia after missing Saturday's success through suspension, Owen's willingness to enthuse about Heskey's qualities clearly underlines where his own preference lies when it comes to the identity of his partner for Wednesday's game.

"We know each other like the back of our hands so, going into the game, we weren't worried about whether we would click," said Owen, who now needs just six more goals to move alongside Jimmy Greaves in third place on England's all-time goalscoring list. "Emile's Emile - you know what you're going to get.

"He can be a real weapon on any given day and I thought he played really well (on Saturday). The crowd showed what they thought of his performance when they cheered him off at the end.

"Emile's played well for England before so I don't think anyone is surprised to see him play like this. I've played him with many a year and, in some of those games we've played together, Emile has been pretty much unplayable. It certainly didn't surprise me to see him performance like he did."

Nor was it too much of a surprise to see Owen breaking his duck at the new Wembley. The 27-year-old was understandably rusty at the start of the season following a thigh injury in the summer but, after showing signs of a return to form in last month's international with Germany, he finally broke his duck in Newcastle's Carling Cup win over Barnsley.

Another goal followed in the Magpies' Premier League victory over Wigan, and Saturday's strike made it three goals in three games as the memory of his long-term foot and knee problems finally begins to fade.

"I feel fine," said Owen. "I've played plenty of games already this season and I feel absolutely fine. Some games I'll play better, some games I'll play worse, but I'm in a position now to go out there and do what I feel I do best.

"The most important thing is that the team got a vital win. It was a such big game for us and everyone knew it, but Wednesday will be massive again.

"We've already done some damage to one of our biggest challengers, and that's a chance to do some more to another one.

"We're above Israel now and that's great, but we know that Russia pose just as big a threat to us. We need to reproduce Saturday's performance on Wednesday."

Rio Ferdinand was equally keen to look the future, although the Manchester United defender sounded a note of caution ahead of the visit of Guus Hiddink's side.

Saturday's 3-0 victory over Macedonia means that Russia have conceded just one goal in their eight Euro 2008 qualifiers, a statistic that underlines the quality of their defence.

And, with the likes of Sevilla striker Alexander Kerzhakov in their squad, Group E's second-placed side are also likely to pose far more of an attacking threat than a largely impotent Israel.

"I think the Russia game will be quite a bit harder," admitted Ferdinand. "But some games are only as hard as you make them. If we go out with the same impetus, the same frame of mind and the same application we showed against Israel, I'm sure we'll get a positive result.

"If we play at our best, I have no doubt that we'll win, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves and say that we've turned a corner because (Saturday) was just one game."