Rooney

Fabio Capello’s dream start to his reign as England manager continued on Wednesday night with a 3-1 win over Belarus (as briefly reported in Thursday’s Late City edition) that established a record for their best start to a World Cup qualifying campaign. A 30-yard strike from Steven Gerrard and a second-half brace by Wayne Rooney were enough to make it successive wins in the opening four matches for the first time in their history.

Capello was recruited at £6 million a year to bring the World Cup back from South Africa in two years’ time, or at least to reach the semi-finals in one of the next two tournaments, so it is early to be getting carried away, but the Italian has made an impressive start.

Asked whether his new haircut was responsible for his run of goal-scoring form, Rooney, who has hit five in England’s past three matches, preferred to praise his colleagues. “A lot of credit goes to my teammates,” he said. “There was great individual work by Emile (Heskey) for my first and a great pass by Stevie (for his second). I’m obviously pleased with the goals, but more so with the three points. They (Belarus) are a good team who pass the ball well, in a similar style to the way Arsenal play, so we knew it would be a difficult game. ”

Although not as spectacular as last month’s stunning 4-1 win over Croatia, this victory was just as impressive as England had to work hard against technically talented opponents who threatened to expose their patched-up back four. David James made several important saves in the opening minutes before Gerrard eased England’s nerves with a wonderful strike in the 11th minute, pouncing on a loose ball won by Rooney to stroke the ball into the bottom corner.

Belarus equalised in the 27th minute, but Heskey set up Rooney’s first five minutes into the second half and Gerrard helped to create his second. “I’m very happy because I said it was going to be a very important game for us,” Capello said. “We’re in good form and played well as a group. It’s another step forward, but we have more games to play on the road to South Africa.”