England have produced their best performance under Steve McClaren in beating Israel 3-0 at Wembley to give their Euro 2008 hopes a massive boost.
The victory moves England above Israel and into third place in Group E with four matches left to play.
The visitors were disappointing and never presented England with any real concern as Wembley witnessed the first victory for England since its reopening thanks to goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips, Michael Owen and Micah Richards.
McClaren elected to start Emile Heskey in attack alongside Michael Owen, while Gareth Barry was handed his first England start in seven years as Owen Hargreaves failed to prove his fitness in time to make the clash, but Steven Gerrard was in the centre of midfield despite the concern over his toe injury.
The recall of Heskey to the international set-up took many by surprise, so to see him in the starting line-up was quite a shock, although with no Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch or Darren Bent the options were limited. The Wigan striker, who previously has a successful partnership with Owen at Liverpool and England, had the games first opportunity, but he blasted the ball over the bar after Own haid the ball off.
It proved to be the first of many chances as the first half was very much all one-way traffic, although the home side had a nervy moment before the offside flag came to their rescue.
The star of the show was arguably Wright-Phillips, who caused Israel all-sorts of problems on the right-flank, but it was a ball into him that led to the breakthrough. A dangerous cross into him from the creative Joe Cole was converted by his Chelsea team-mate at the far post.
England did not sit back on their lead and played some confident and convicing football as McClaren's gambles paid off with Owen and Heskey linking up well, while Gareth Barry, who was so strangely neglected by Sven Goran Eriksson, helped Gerrard dominate in midfield.
Owen was denied by the face of goalkeeper Dudu Auoate before missing his rebound, while he was inches away from getting on the end of Shaun Wright-Phillips' cross before the end of the first half.
However, the goalscorer got his name on the scoresheet in the second half with one of his best goals in and England shirt. The Newcastle midfielder collected a pass from Cole and on the half volley smashed it past Auoata to relax the home crowd.
A brief nervy momeny in England's defence passed by and the home team wrapped up the win with a header from the brilliant Micah Richards, although the visitors were not impressed with a collision between the goalkeeper and Owen just before Richards headed home.
There was a distinct lack of anything for goalkeeper Paul Robinson to do other than to punch away a cross, but a cleansheet is what he needed following the criticism he faced in the aftermath of the recent friendly defeat to Germany.
Owen came close to adding a fourth but was denied on the line, but England got the win they needed and more importantly claimed the confidence booster ahead of Wednesday's match with Russia, who today defeated Macedonia 3-0.
England introduced Phil Neville, Andy Johnson and David Bentley in the second half with the latter interestingly being booed by the home fans, presumably over his decision to refuse to play in this summers European U-21 Championships.
Man of the Match - Shaun Wright-Phillips
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