Match Summary

England Team

Slovakia Team

This warm-up friendly match was supposed to give manager Fabio Capello a chance to try a few striking options.  It did, but not quite in the way he expected.  England were soon in command of the game, scoring their first goal after just seven minutes.  Wayne Rooney was the instigator with a fine pass to Steven Gerrard who had made one of his typical bursts into the penalty area.  After showing lovely control he then crossed for Emile Heskey to beat Martin Škrtel to the ball and score.  Heskey should have scored again two minutes later but headed Rooney's cross over the bar.

Fourteen minutes had passed when Heskey became the night's first casualty when he had to go off with muscle cramp.  On came Carlton Cole and he was given a chance by another piece of Gerrard power play but he overstretched and injured his groin.  He had only been on for half an hour and he too had to be replaced, this time by Peter Crouch.

The early goal had sparked Slovakia into life and David James had to be alert to make good saves from Miroslav Karhan and Robert Vittek.  But England missed other chances too, notably when Rooney shot over from a good position just before the break.  Aaron Lennon's pace was causing the visitors problems, but once again the final ball from the Tottenham winger was a cause for concern.  Capello had another re-think at the break and brought on David Beckham for his 109^th cap, thus breaking Bobby Moore's outfield player's record appearance total.  Ben Foster and Stewart Downing also came on, with James, Lennon and Gerrard going off.  All these changes did nothing for England's continuity or preparations for the Ukraine game and Slovakia almost scored when Erik Jendrisek, yet another substitution, fired a shot into the side netting after John Terry's mistake.  Terry then went up the other end and got a touch on a Crouch goalbound shot, only to find himself given offside, thus depriving Crouch and England a goal.

Beckham's influence then began to take a hold on the game.  Terry shot wide from one of his crosses, but in the 70^th minute, when Beckham collected a Gareth Barry mishit, this time the cross was perfect for Rooney to score with an easy header.  The game was now safe and England continued to press forward.  Unbelievably for the manager though, yet another forward had to limp off with an injury as Crouch took a knock.  His replacement, Michael Carrick, was soon in the action and eight minutes from the end he threaded a lovely pass through to Frank Lampard and it was 3-0.

In the last minute England set the seal on the win when Lampard turned provider to set up Rooney for number four.  Rooney had been outstanding and pulled the Slovakian defence all over the place with his darting runs and pace.  His movement with Gerrard was superb and it was great to watch.  There was no doubt that England deserved to win, and at times they were playing within themselves.  Saving themselves perhaps for the harder battles ahead.

Source Notes

BBC Sport
TheFA.com
SkySports.com
Mike Payne - football historian and contributor
Marcel Hoefsmit - friend and contributor
____________________

CG