Patience was the key

England's two-goal hero Wayne Rooney was pleased that the team did not get panicked and resort to long-ball tactics despite not scoring against Kazakhstan, ranked 105 places below Fabio Capello's 15th-placed team, in the first half.

The Manchester United star, who scored his 16th and 17th goals in his 47th appearance for the national team, knew that patience would be the virtue that would secure the Group Six win and propel Capello's team to the top of the table.

The 22-year-old said: "The key was being patient as we knew Kazakhstan would come here and try to break up our game. In the first half we had a couple of chances and could have gone into the break one or two goals up. We knew that we had to be patient and not to rush it and kick the ball long.

"We knew the chances would come and thankfully we took them and ended up with an easy victory. We know we can play better but the result is the main thing. We keep getting those points on the board and we are delighted at that."

England
1 David James (Portsmouth), 2 Wes Brown (Manchester United), 3 Ashley Cole (Chelsea), 4 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), 5 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), 6 Matthew Upson (West Ham United), 7 Theo Walcott (Arsenal) (15 David Beckham (LA Galaxy), 79) 8 Frank Lampard (Chelsea), 9 Emile Heskey (Wigan Athletic), 10 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) (17 Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth) 87), 11 Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) (16 Shaun Wright-Phillips, 46)

Substitutes not used
12 Scott Carson (West Bromwich Albion), 13 Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), 14 Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), 18 Peter Crouch (Portsmouth)

Manager
Fabio Capello

Kazakhstan
1 Alexandr Mokin (Alma-Ata), 3 Alexandr Kirov (Alma-Ata) (13 Talgat Sabalakov, 85) 4 Alexandr Kuchma (Astana), 5 Alexandr Kislitsyn (Shakhtyor), 7 Tanat Nusserbayev (Ordabasy), 8 Sergey Skorykh (Tobyl), 9 Sergey Ostapenko (Alma-Ata) (17 Gleb Maltsev, 76) 10 Rulsan Baltiyev (Tobyl), 16 Sabyrkhan Ibrayev (Tobyl), 21 Zhambyl Kukeyev (Alma-Ata), 14 Yuriy Logvinenko (Aktobe)

Substitutes
18 Andrey Morev (Aktobe), 2 Kairat Nurdauletov (Tobyl), 15 Ilya Vorotnikov (Alma-Ata), 20 Maxim Azovskiy (Alma-Ata), 23 Bekzat Beissenov (Ordabasy)

Manager
Bernd Storck

Referee
Paul Allaerts

Assistant Referees
Danny Huens
Vincent Despiegeleer

Fourth Official
Peter Vervecken

Team Colours

England
White shirts, white shorts, white socks

Kazakhstan
Blue shirts, blue shorts, blue socks

Attendance: 89107