England – wow!

Where did that come from?!

After all the hating, England produced their best performance for seven years last night, winning 4-1 in the cauldron of Zagreb. Like their previous pinnacle, the 5-1 in Munich, there was a hat-trick for a young starlet – Theo Walcott in this case – but that was just one of a number of stellar performances.

Heskey worked tirelessly (although his 5 goals in 48 internationals is a little embarrassing), Lampard was excellent (and only a Heskey foul denied him an excellent goal) and Rooney was a revelation, one of those isolated occasions when he shows how good he can really be.

David James was the only down point, looking jittery and making a couple of handling errors despite having ltitle to do.

As per the post below, Walcott’s international virginity – he has not been sullied by the weight of expectation, or the bully boo-boys – was his strength. He brought vibrancy and fearlessness into a team that had been introverted and insular, he brought pace and penetration, and visibly lifted the rest of the side.

Everyone worked hard, everyone played well (except James) and England illustrated last night why the FA are prepared to pay Capello £6m per year. He achieved in his second competitive game what Mclaren could not in his whole era, and what Sven only touched on.

But lets not get carried away. Yes England were good, yes we all hope its the start of a brave new dawn, and yes it gave us hope that if – if – England’s big guns perform we can be amongst the best in the world. But one swallow does not make a summer. England must show consistency, Walcott, Rooney, Lampard and Heskey must perform consistently at International level, and then we can get excited.

A few more performances like this, and we may permit ourselves just a tiny bit of hope that we may at least compete in a major tournament.

But that is a long way off. Let this be seen as an indicator of our potential – and let’s pray Capello can release it.