England score five in thumping win against San Marino

Wayne Rooney scored one of the goals as England coasted past San Marino with a simple if not spectacular 5-0 win at Wembley.

Captain Wayne Rooney led England to a second successive victory in Group E
Captain Wayne Rooney led England to a second successive victory in Group E

England delivered the expected easy win over San Marino at Wembley to maintain their 100% start to the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

Captain Wayne Rooney moved closer to becoming England's all-time record goalscorer by scoring his 42nd goal, seven short of the legendary Bobby Charlton.

It was not the complete goal-fest many expected for Roy Hodgson’s team against an opponent ranked the lowest in the world by FIFA but it maintained the Three Lions’ position at the top of Group E.

And Rooney, although he could have had more, was an architect as his first-half penalty added to England’s goal tally, before he later contributed to Alessandro Della Valle’s own goal at Wembley on Thursday night.

Phil Jagielka, Welbeck and substitute Andros Townsend were also on target in a game in which England made hard work of their lowly opposition, however, they can now look forward to Sunday’s game away to Estonia.

The scoreline matched England's win in October 2012 and Hodgson's men now move on to face Estonia on Sunday as they attempt to make it three wins out of three.

San Marino's right to a place at this level - they are joint bottom with Bhutan at 208th in the Fifa world rankings - has been questioned, and nothing happened here to suggest they can ever be a going concern in international football.

Apart from the odd piece of token resistance - and the antics of keeper Aldo Simoncini - this was another unsuccessful exercise in damage limitation. England's record over them is now an aggregate 31-1 from five meetings.

For Hodgson and his players, this was job done in front of a highly respectable attendance of 55,990 and the impression remains that there would be the biggest inquest in England's football history should they fail to progress from this group.