PETER CROUCH hopes he has given coach Fabio Capello food for thought after stepping up his claims for a World Cup starting spot with two goals last night.

The Tottenham striker took his goal tally for his country to 20 in 37 games after replacing club-mate Jermain Defoe at half-time when England trailed to Mohamed Zidan’s opener.

And Crouch is hopeful that will help him secure a spot on the plane to South Africa.

‘‘Anyone who plays for England is going to feel under pressure, certainly in a World Cup year,’’ he said.

‘‘You can only try to do your best and I did.

‘‘Its up to the manager. All you’ve got to do when given your chance is try and take it and I’ve given the manager something to think about tonight.’’ Much of the talk before the match was about deposed captain John Terry and he was greeted with a considerable proportion of boos, but Steven Gerrard praised the way the Chelsea defender dealt with matters.

He said: ‘‘I thought he was superb, thought he handled everything really well.

‘‘He showed he’s a fantastic player and a great leader.’’ Egypt went in at the break ahead but England recovered from a poor first-half performance to run out comfortable winners.

Gerrard put their recovery down to team spirit.

‘‘You’ve got to give credit to them, they played very well in the first half. We never converted chances we had. So I think we were unfortunate to come in 1-0 down.

‘‘But we showed good character and togetherness.”