A confident performance from England finally broke down a resistant Northern Ireland defence. England dominated the possession in the first half and keeper Maik Taylor pulled off some great saves in the first fourty five minutes to keep the score 0-0 at half time.

England came out firing after the break and were 3-0 in the opening 9 minutes. The impressive Joe Cole opened the scoring on 47 minutes, the Chelsea midfielder curling his shot into the far corner beyond the reach of Taylor's despairing drive. On 52 minutes Michael Owen pounced to score the second after good work by Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard. More good work by Rooney two minutes later saw his cross knocked into his own goal by Chris Baird.

Frank Lampard’s deflected shot made it four on 63 minutes as England were now in complete control. Owen and Lampard should have added to the scoreline but 4-0 was a great result.

The England coach said: "Joe did exactly what we hoped he'd do. I gladly say congratulations to him. He is a different player now in a positive way. He is still a big talent and can beat people but can also play simple and defends rather well. I'm very happy with him and he must be very happy with his own performance. He has finally learned that football is not only about making tricks. It is about choosing when to do it and when not to do it.

"If you do it at the wrong time, you can put your team in big difficulties with counter-attacks but if you do it in the last third of the pitch, when you can gain something important, then it's okay. He was absolutely perfect and, if he goes on like this, it would be very difficult to move him from that position. He was excellent and I don't think he ever lost the ball in a stupid way like in the past. His talent is incredible. He beats people and can score goals."