England boss Steve McClaren heaped praise on his players after Israel were brushed aside 3-0 at Wembley – but he has also warned his men that they cannot rest on their laurels and must focus on Wednesday’s crucial game against Russia.
England moved into third in Group E after goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips, Michael Owen and Micah Richards saw off the challenge of Israel. And McClaren was delighted.
"It was a good performance today, a good win and we have to follow that up against Russia on Wednesday," said the England Head Coach.
"It's about Wednesday now. We can enjoy the result, celebrate for 24 hours and then it's back to work on Monday.
"I am just pleased with the performance today and the atmosphere in the dressing room at the moment. Everybody contributed to the result today and we are looking forward to Wednesday."
And McClaren had special words of praise for the recalled Emile Heskey, as well as goalscorer Wright-Phillips.
"Emile Heskey is a handful," explained McClaren. "We knew that from the beginning and we played to it. Emile said he would take his chance and he did. He is more mature now and handles the situation a lot better.
"There was a lot of pressure on Shaun Wright-Phillips today. People have seen his good form for Chelsea and were disappointed with him last season but he has really come to the fore and it was an excellent performance today."
And McClaren also issued a rallying cry to the Wembley faithful ahead of another must-win Wembley tie, against group leaders Russia on Wednesday.
"The crowd really got behind the team today and we need that again on Wednesday," McClaren revealed.
England
1 Paul Robinson, 2 Micah Richards, 3 Ashley Cole, 4 Steven Gerrard (14 Phil Neville, 71), 5 Rio Ferdinand, 6 John Terry (c), 7 Gareth Barry, 8 Shaun Wright-Phillips (15 David Bentley, 83), 9 Emile Heskey (17 Andrew Johnson, 71), 10 Michael Owen, 11 Joe Cole
Subs not used 12 Wes Brown, 13 David James, 16 Stewart Downing, 18 Jermain Defoe
Israel
1 Dudu Aouate, 2 Yuval Shpungin, 3 Tal Ben-Haim, 4 Arik Benado (12 Omer Golan, 57), 5 Shimon Gershon, 9 Barak Yitzhaki (8 Toto Tamuz, 46), 10 Walid Badir, 11 Idan Tal, 14 Yoav Ziv, 15 Yossi Benayoun (c), 20 Yaniv Katan (7 Michael Zandberg, 73)
Subs not used 22 Nir Davidovic (gk), 16 Yigal Antebi, 19 Gal Alberman, 17 Pini Balali
Kit Colours
England White shirts, Blue shorts, White socks
GK Aubergine shirt, Aubergine shorts, White socks
Israel Blue shirts, White shorts, Blue socks
GK Grey or Black (TBC)
Match Officials
Referee Pieter Vink (NED)
Assistant Referees Adriaan Inia and Hans Ten Hoove (NED)
Fourth Official Bjorn Kuipers (NED)
Attendance 85,372