England look east for real Euro test

England 3 Estonia 0

The phoney war is over.

After the fifth, and easiest, of a successive run of three-goal wins, England and Steve McClaren move forward to their date with destiny in Moscow knowing success or failure will probably determine their Euro 2008 fate.

Win on Wednesday and England will have booked their place in Austria and Switzerland next summer with a month to spare, draw and McClaren’s boys can at the very least begin to dust their passports off. But lose and McClaren’s next major journey might be to the Job Centre.

On the evidence of these last enjoyable couple of months, the latter scenario is the least likely to unfold. And while the more astute punter would still be putting his money on stalemate on the Luzhniki Stadium’s plastic pitch, McClaren and his team have every reason to approach their task with confidence.

Barring an unforeseen disaster, Estonia were never going to offer England much of a threat. But, apart from Ashley Cole’s unfortunate injury, which will almost certainly rule him out of the Russia trip, the weekend could not have unfolded much better for the England coach.

In sticking with Gareth Barry above Frank Lampard, McClaren’s judgement was proved spot-on.

Once more, the Aston Villa man excelled, picking up another man-of-the-match honour. And although his old mate Steven Gerrard did not have the best of games, Liverpool’s inspiration is without question operating with far greater freedom than he has ever done with Frank Lampard alongside him. A positive sign indeed for when Gerrard’s form does return, as it undoubtedly will.

In defence, Sol Campbell eased his way back into the international scene with enough confidence to convince McClaren that the veteran Portsmouth star can be relied upon to keep Guus Hiddink’s men at bay should John Terry fail to recover from his knee injury.

And up front, Wayne Rooney finally scored a competitive goal, an incredible 1,211 days since his last one.

In fact, it was so long since the Manchester United player found the net when it mattered for his country, he was still wearing the blue of Everton.

Not that you would have noticed any sense of anxiety given the way he rocketed Joe Cole’s cross beyond the hapless Mart Poom, who had already gifted Shaun Wright-Phillips England’s opener.

As usual, Rooney was an energetic presence, charging up and down the field, flying into tackles, embarking on surging runs and generally making a nuisance of himself. His desire for victory is so great when Gerrard wasted a sublime late pass by trying to check onto his right foot before offering an ill-advised square ball to Joe Cole, the young Merseysider waved his arms around in disgust.

It is precisely the win-at-all-costs mentality England will need in Russia this week, although another goal would not go amiss either.

For, while much is made of the vast disparity in Michael Owen’s goal ratio when he partners Emile Heskey compared to Rooney, it has to be taken into account that the man McClaren feels is only ’potentially’ world-class, has the ability to make up the difference himself.

England will certainly need a fully fit and firing Rooney next summer should everything go to plan for McClaren this week.

Yet undoubtedly, he is not the main man any more.

Ask McClaren to offer one word to sum up the staggering improvement which has taken him from the brink of dismissal during the aberration against Andorra in March to his present elevated stature and he will come up with the same answer every time – teamwork.

His message appears to be getting through as, finally, instead of having a bunch of talented individuals trying to implement his game-plan, McClaren has a group eager to buy into a collective ethic.

He may be tinkering with the idea of a 4-3-3 formation in Russia, which would trigger the restoration of Lampard to his starting line-up but the most obvious fall guy, Wright-Phillips, is now a scorer on two of his last three England starts and now appears capable of causing the same kind of havoc which brought him to prominence at Manchester City.

True, it took a bizarre own-goal from Taavi Rahn to seal a fifth successive three-goal win in England’s Group E qualifying campaign and the hosts’ performance did fade badly once Cole departed in the second half.

But the positive spin on that dip was that England, having won the game already, were merely storing up energy for the greater challenge that lies ahead.

On Wednesday, we will find out whether their welcome recent improvement is all it seems to be.