Priceless Owen goals give England a huge lift

England 2 Slovakia 1

England trailed at half-time to a goal from Vladimir Janocko after an error by David James who was beaten by a curling 40-yard free-kick.

But it was one-way traffic towards the Slovakian goal in the second half and an Owen penalty and a header took his goal tally for his country to 22 after he had spurned a trio of first half chances. England are now two points behind group leaders Turkey 3-2 winners over Macedonia but they have a game in hand.

Wayne Rooney had a quiet opening to the game and, when Steven Gerrard sent a deep cross in his direction, it was headed clear by Michal Hanek.

Robert Vittek then got past Gareth Southgate to run on to a throw-in but, although his shot contained plenty of power, it was from a narrow angle and beaten away by James with Matthew Upson then completing the clearance.

But there were signs that the Slovakians, only beaten by a single goal by Turkey on Saturday, were unlikely to be mere pushovers for Sven-Goran Eriksson's side.

After 31 minutes Slovakia stunned England by taking the lead after a glaring misjudgement by James.

Janocko sent in an inswinging free-kick from 40 yards out which flew over the head of Southgate and Martin Petras and past a flat-footed James into the corner of the net. Before the home side could regain their composure James partially atoned for his error by parrying away a header by a completely unmarked Hanek.

England's need to turn the tables on Slovakia was heightened by the news that Turkey had triumphed 3-2 against Macedonia after trailing at half-time.

Rooney was clearly not looking anywhere near his deadly sharpest and it was no surprise when he was substituted after 56 minutes and replaced by Aston Villa striker Darius Vassell. Vassell was soon in the thick of the action and just failed to make contact with a well judged chip from Lampard.

Then after 61 minutes Owen put England back on level terms after Marian Zeman was adjudged to have brought him down. The Slovakians were furious and Hanek was booked for dissent before Owen stepped up to send Konig the wrong way from the spot for his 21st goal for his country.

If Slovakia were unfortunate on that occasion then they looked to have escaped when Southgate clearly appeared to be held back attempting to make contact with a cross.

Lampard, who was causing plenty of problems, cut inside to set up a golden chance but pulled his shot across the face of goal. The Chelsea midfielder put the ball in the net only for his effort to be ruled out for offside. Television replays indicated Lampard was clearly onside when he deflected in the shot from Southgate.

But two minutes later the Riverside erupted when Owen scored his second goal of the night and this time the Slovakians could have no complaints. Gerrard sent over a floated centre from the left and Owen was perfectly placed to guide his header past Konig.

The Slovakians replied by taking off local hero Nemeth and replacing him with Jozef Kozlej but it needed the woodwork to deny Owen a hat-trick.

The Liverpool striker ran onto Cole's pass and saw his shot blocked by Konig and he then headed the rebound against the crossbar. Vassell was looking lively and Debnar was yellow-carded for bringing him down in full flight. Hargreaves nearly added a third in injury-time, his rising shot flying just over the bar after he latched onto a Scholes pass.

ENGLAND: James, Cole, Upson, Southgate, Mills, Lampard, P Neville, Scholes, Gerrard, Rooney, Owen.

SLOVAKIA: Konig; Petras, Zeman, Labant, Hanek; Demo, Zabavnik, Michalik, Janocko; Vittek, Nemeth.

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)