England 0 Montenegro 0

England start bright enough, Crouch is through after 2 mins but fails to get a toe to the ball, spurns the chance to open the scoring. After 8 mins a hopeful shot from Ashley Young flies over the top of the bar. On 15 mins, Gerrard takes a free-kick to G Johnson who sets up Crouch, Crouch heads a little high and wide. A strike by Ashley Cole is flapped at by the keeper who manages to keep it out of the goal. Several more chances come England's way, but on the whole England look a bit ponderous and slow despite their superior possession.

In the closing minute, G Johnson is put through, takes a bad decision, declining the shot - instead his pass is woeful, Rooney gathers the ball but cannot find the net through a sea of bodies. England are looking comfortable in the middle of the park, but Montenegro are not too bothered by English attacking moves which are plodding and uncertain.

The second half begins brightly like the first, Rooney shooting over from distance in the first few minutes. More swift moves follow, Gerrard passes straight through everyone from the right hand side, more pinpoint passes from Gerrard go begging. More free-kicks are earned and wasted (missing Beckham now...), but the only player really looking worth his salt for England is Gerrard. Unfortunately England are so ponderous, Gerrard is spending too much time in his own half.

69 mins, Crouch off for Kevin Davies who gets an early chance to cross from the right, corner won. Shortly after that Davies and Rooney combine, ball falls to Rooney, stunning save from the keeper denies him.

73 mins, Wright-Phillips on for Ashley Young, Wright Philips exercises the Montenegro defence on the left--hand side. On 83 mins a dipping Montenegro chance shot out of the blue beats Joe Hart (only time he has had to even move...) but thankfully hits the bar to avoid a disaster. More chances fall to England as the clock ticks away, more free-kicks wasted, Barry has a chance on his wrong (left) foot saved by the diving keeper - time finally runs out on a disappointing draw.

Nevertheless, you have to say, had this been a boxing match, England got a convincing points win... Sadly this is not how qualifiers work, and England have squandered a chance to establish themselves as Group leaders. The positives were that Montenegro had not one shot on target, at least England drew about four or five decent saves.

The bad news is that England look ponderous, Rooney looks bemused - the play was not incisive enough, there were plenty of chances but no joy.

Switzerland 1 England 3

The same team that started at Wembley apart from the injured Dawson who was replaced by Lescott. Once more England showed their intent from the start and this time, the crowd had to wait only 10 minutes for a goal from under-pressure Wayne Rooney. The ball was cut back from the byline from Glen Johnson, Defoe and Walcott let it run to Rooney who neatly slotted it away. Walcott got his right ankle turned in the move and had to be taken off to be replaced by Adam Johnson.

England got into their domination groove and bossed the game for large portions of the first half. On 22 minutes, Defoe had a chance from an Adam Johnson cut-back, but skied the ball. This was followed by two more chances for Defoe five minutes later, the first from an Ashley Cole cross from the left flank (ball behind Defoe), the second from Milner as Defoe arrived a fraction of a second too late to get a contact.

After a brief flurry of possession from the Swiss, Rooney shoots from distance on 30 mins, but his shot loops lazily over the bar. Five minutes later, Adam Johnson inspired by his goal on Friday, takes a shot from distance, narrowly missing the target. On 42 mins, Defoe jigs left and right on the edge of the box, and shoots - it's a comfortable height for the keeper who punches away. A little later, Adam Johnson brings the ball a long way towards the goal, he looked like he might take it on his favoured left, but instead he slid it in for Rooney who couldn't find a way past the keeper - he turned and crossed for Defoe, but the little man was out-jumped by a defender.

The first half ended with England leading by Rooney's goal, looking in charge, but as we know, this team is more than capable of giving the opposition a chance to score at some point in the match. Hart had little to do, but needs to stay sharp and alert for the second half.

England start the second half well with Rooney setting up Adam Johnson for an ambitious volley which goes wide. A little later namesake Glen Johnson cuts onto his left and has a well-struck shot is pushed around the far post by the keeper. However England appear determined to let the Swiss back into the game and Hart has a nervy few minutes before Lichtsteiner takes Milner clean off the ball for a second yellow to get himself sent off. Challenges are getting harder as the Swiss try physical force to change the game and the English players reply in kind. Fouls and free-kicks are flying in and whilst Defoe limps towards the sidelines, Adam Johnson is released superbly by Gerrard and takes the ball round the keeper before scoring his second international goal in a matter of days. Defoe is stretchered off whilst England celebrate scoring two away goals. Only minutes later, 17 year old Swiss player Xherdan Shaquiri gets one back hammering the ball past Hart as Bent comes on to replace Defoe.

There is little more than 15 minutes left, the Swiss are down a goal and a player, but tails are up having just scored. It is up to England to establish control and re-establish a commanding lead. With 10 minutes to go, Wright-Phillips replaces Rooney, as England try to get a grip on the game. Wright Phillips gets a cross in from the left, the ball is left for Adam Johnson who shoots high and wide. Despite superiority in numbers, England are hanging on at this stage and failing to press home the advantage. Wright-Phillips had a chance running free on the right, but failed to get his cross to an unmarked Bent on the left for what would have been a tap-in.

Bent gets his chance on 87 minutes picking up on the left from a Wright-Phillips pass and firing home with his left, 1-3 to England. Wright-Phillips is again involved crossing for Milner who is narrowly beaten to the ball by the keeper. Right to the end, England are now pushing for more goals whilst the Swiss know the game is up.

Over-all, England have to be happy with the way they dominated the first half and the amount of chances they created, Capello is surely resting a little easier as England start to repeat their valiant efforts of their World Cup qualification run last year.

England 4 Bulgaria 0

First half:

Almost from the word go, England score through Defoe just two and a half minutes into the game at Wembley. Rooney picked up the ball outside the box taking it off Ashley Cole's feet, he chipped it perfectly back to Cole who had his shot saved, recovering, Cole passed across the box to Defoe who volleyed into the top of the net 1-0, England up and running.

That goal was the reward for the pressure exerted on the opposition right from the start, Bulgaria looked dazed for a while but England failed to really control the game in the early stages although they started to take more control after the first half hour or so. Chances came for Milner, Walcott and Defoe with little in reply from the Bulgarian team. Joe Hart looked confident between the sticks and was aware enough to gather up a mis-directed clearance from Glen Johnson.

Up front the early stages featured too many lofted passes and crosses from an English team that were never likely to dominate the air without a Crouch or Carlton Cole. Nevertheless, they made it to half time comfortably ahead by a goal - a nervous second-half could be avoided by slotting another couple of goals in, but England rarely do things the easy way!

Second Half:

The second half began in the same vein but was destined to develop much in the same way as one of Englands' recent World Cup qualifiers. Before the first five minutes were gone, Rooney attempted to chip the keeper who just managed to claw the ball over the bar. Just seven minutes later, Bulgaria narrowly missed the goal from a 'route one' move that caught the England backs napping. This was quickly followed by Dawson going down with a serious-looking knee injury, being stretchered off and replaced by Gary Cahill. Everything clicked into place on the hour mark, Hart punched away a decent effort into the path of Barry, Rooney picked up the ball distributing to Defoe inside the box who slides the ball through the legs of the keeper for two-nil.

On 74 minutes Adam Johnson comes on for Walcott who has not really delivered, a minute later Gerard delivers a shot that bounces off the keeper who manages to claw the ball away just as Defoe arrives. Five minutes later England on the break, Rooney to Adam Johnson playing on the right, who puts a well-struck shot wide of the far-side post. On 83 minutes after a few dangerous moments from Bulgaria again, Rooney again provides the ball to Adam Johnson, this time, he gets the ball inside the near-post for three-nil.

Only two minutes later, Defoe gets onto the end of a precision pass, shoots on the move with his left and scores his hat-trick, Englands' fourth of the night picking up an injury to his left ankle on the way. He is replaced by Ashley Young and England play out the game in front of a very happy England crowd, finally something to feel good about. Outstanding contributions from Rooney, Defoe and Joe Hart who looks every inch a seasoned international keeper after only his first full game. Great contributions from players like Adam Johnson, James Milner and the whole team on a night when the French revival fails at the first hurdle losing at home to Belarussia....