WCQ 2010: England end with style

England completed their qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup with a 3-0 victory over Belarus at Wembley on Wednesday night.

Peter Crouch scored twice, with a Shaun Wright-Phillips goal sandwiched in between, to give the Three Lions a comfortable scoreline as they concluded Group 6 with three points.

With World Cup qualification already secure, this was a chance for Fabio Capello to consider his options, to correct the mistakes from the weekend’s away defeat to Ukraine, and, in the Italian’s words, look at ‘Plan B and Plan C’.

The England manager promptly made six changes from the team that lost in Dnipropetrovsk, with fringe players such as Gabriel Agbonlahor and Wayne Bridge offered the opportunity to demonstrate their credentials.

Capello’s reshuffle appeared positive from kick-off, with Crouch opening the scoring on four minutes, however, England lost their way a little and what was meant to be a qualification party and tactical experiment appeared set to fall a little flat.

Wright-Phillips, though, doubled the lead after half-time thanks to help from a cameo performance from substitute David Beckham, before Crouch grabbed his second to wrap up the win.

First competitive starts were handed to Aston Villa striker Agbonlahor and Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster among half-a-dozen alterations from the side which had been beaten on Saturday.

Goalkeeper Robert Green was suspended following his weekend red card, while injured duo Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard had returned to United and Liverpool, respectively. Rio Ferdinand was handed the chance to amend his mistake against Ukraine.