Wright's debut delight

England hit the new season running with a comprehensive and colourful 3-0 victory over the Ukraine at St James’ Park.

Goals from the Madrid masters Beckham and Owen led the way, with a debut from Shaun Wright-Phillips providing the icing on the cake.

Next month, England will be playing for six vital World Cup Qualifying points and Sven will be gratified to know that not only are his experienced players in good shape, but that the next generation are also already beginning to knock impatiently at the door.

The match began with a bolt – of lightning – and, on a slippery surface, it was the Ukraine who initially looked the slicker going forward.

England’s first forward thrust came from Michael Owen. Full of confidence and drive, he knocked the ball past Rusol, and looked too dangerous for the defender to allow him to get away. Rusol cynically blocked his path and knew a yellow card could be the only result.

Then the captains took centre-stage. First Beckham popped over a delicate cross to the far post where Smith failed to find a solid connection before Shevchenko pulled a clever ball back to Rotan, who fired over from the edge of the box.

At the back, King and Terry played together with a comfort that you might not have expected given that this was their first start together. We saw once more that King’s technical ability and awareness of movement are ideally suited to the subtleties of international football. A parcel arrived at the England Team Hotel this week. It was addressed to King Ledley – maybe they know something we don’t.

Meanwhile, it was the imposing figure of John Terry who set-up the first goal. He strode out of defence and punted a zipper of a cross into the middle. Beckham slid in ahead of Shovkovskyy to prod home an untypical goal for him but a highly valuable goal all the same.

Normal working order was resumed for the second goal shortly after half-time. Beckham provided a super left-footed centre for Owen to rise and head home with a firm header at the far post. Madrid will be licking its lips.

The one unsavoury element of the night was the jeering of Kieron Dyer. It’s difficult to know what purpose it served. Still, the applause that greeted the arrival of Shaun Wright-Phillips was good to see. The little City Flyer seems to have the whole country behind him. You can’t help but be drawn towards the freshness with which he plays the game. It’s been too long since we’ve had a real dribbler to illuminate England nights.

When he got the ball on the half-way line on 70 minutes all the crowd wanted was for him to have a run at the defence, and how he obliged. He tore forward before clipping the ball home into the far corner. He was almost as happy as his Dad with the goal.

His best mate Jermain had two good chances – one he snatched at, the other was well saved – but there will be other nights for him.

And with Austria and Poland now only a couple of weeks away, those chances could come sooner rather than later.

England: James, G Neville (Johnson, 45), King, Terry, A Cole (Carragher, 60), Beckham, Lampard (Jenas, 73), Butt (Wright-Phillips, 55), Gerrard (Dyer, 45), Smith (Defoe, 45), Owen

Ukraine: Shovkovsky, Federov, Rusol, Yezerskyi, Nesmachny, Tymoschuk, Shelayev, Vorobey, Rotan, Husev, Shevchenko. Subs: Gusev, Rebrov, Voronin, Kormiltsev, Zakarliuka, Nazarenko, Radchenko, Matiukhin, Reva.

Referee: M McCurry (Scotland)
Attendance: 35,387