Keep making the noise, people, the stadium announcer urged, but it will all go very quiet for England now, as the rest of Europe gets down to the serious business of tournament football, and Fabio Capello and his players kick their heels waiting for a chance to make it right in two years’ time.

They ended this season with a bang, of Soca drums at least, cruising to a comfortable victory in the most genial of friendly games against Trinidad & Tobago, thanks to goals from Gareth Barry and Jermain Defoe.

Capello knows more about his squad than he did two weeks ago, but as much of it will have been gleaned from the training field as exercises such as this, against a team that replicated only the weakest European opposition. If Capello was looking for a warm-up equivalent to his first competitive fixture against Andorra in September, this was it.

A score to settle was the somewhat incongruous slogan for the match, as if England’s victory over Trinidad & Tobago at the 2006 World Cup had begat some wonderful sporting rivalry between the nations when, in reality, there are games of beach cricket with more edge. Only when the name of Peter Crouch, an England substitute on this occasion but scorer of the goal that broke the deadlock between the teams in Germany after 83 tedious but tense minutes, was read out and provoked a chorus of boos did realisation dawn that on the islands that there might be a sense of unfinished business.

Well it was finished here, all right, with only 15 minutes on the clock after England had taken a two-goal lead. If the metaphorical cricket score failed to develop — and with Brian Lara a son of Santa Cruz, Trinidad, maybe that phrase is not used with such abandon in these parts — it was more because, job done, the thoughts of the England players probably stretched to lying in the sun by a swimming pool, except without Capello, the manager, and his staff keeping a watchful eye from an adjacent lounger.

There was little chance of the opposition providing an exacting test for Capello and his players, even with most of those from Manchester United and Chelsea left behind. All around the camp know the real reason that England are in the Caribbean and it is not for the football.

The most important action was an FA lunch date with Jack Warner, the Fifa vice-president, designed to garner support for the 2018 World Cup bid, and as long as the players put on a similar show for the locals later on, the trip would be deemed a success. The mission required an English win, to avoid embarrassment, but not by a margin that would be deemed impolite and Capello’s boys delivered perfectly.

It helped that the business end of the performance was largely conducted within the space of five first-half minutes, which allowed the rest of the game to be played out at the pace of a typical end-of-season friendly.

If the home team stepped up on occasions it was usually the work of a player such as Darryl Roberts, a substitute striker, who is searching for a club after being released by Sparta Rotterdam. He might be worth a second look; he had more about him than Dean Ashton, who was replaced by Crouch at half-time.

The arrival of Roberts greatly compensated for the loss of Kenwyne Jones, the Sunderland striker and favourite of the Soca Warriors, who was hurt after seven minutes in a 50-50 collision with David James, the England goalkeeper. Jones took no part in the match beyond the eleventh minute; from the first attack after his disappearance, England scored and when a second was added four minutes later any semblance of a contest was over.

Both goals came down England’s left flank, where the home defence was particularly weak, and both were the work of Stewart Downing, who may feature increasingly as an impact substitute under Capello if, as seems likely, Steven Gerrard starts wide on the left when a full set of midfield players is available. Downing’s clever pass to Wayne Bridge set up the first, his through ball made the second and, free of the stigma of being Steve McClaren’s favourite, maybe he will now get a fair crack from England’s supporters. Certainly, he did himself a lot of favours here.

Kern Cupid, Trinidad’s right back and definitely no angel, was at a loss to deal with Downing in the first half, and was utterly flummoxed by the chip that brought in Bridge, the only Chelsea player to make the journey. His cross sent bodies from both sides scrambling into the box, but the ball fell neatly for the late-arriving Barry, who scored his first goal for England after 21 appearances. Downing’s involvement in the second was more direct, a nice pass between two defenders that put Defoe in with only Clayton Ince, the goalkeeper who plays for Walsall, to beat. His angle was tight and a cross to Ashton seemed favourite, but Defoe changed feet and found the perfect spot with his left.

The opposition may have been weak, but strikers are all about goals and, until last night, Defoe had just three for England. His fourth in the bag, he went in search of No 5 and found it after just four minutes of the second half.

Capello introduced a quartet of new players at half-time and two combined to make a goal from the opening attack, David Bentley striking a deep ball and Crouch heading it back across the box for Defoe to score. These were his first goals for England since a 5-0 win over Andorra in 2006, although it will not always be this easy. Well, not after the next Andorra match is out of the way, in September.

Trinidad & Tobago (4-4-1-1): C Ince — K Cupid (sub: K Smith, 46min), M Hislop, D Lawrence, A Farrier — C Edwards, A Whitley, K Hyland (sub: D Yorke, 76), K Daniel (sub: K Connell, 76) — S John (sub: J Forbes, 75) — K Jones (sub: D Roberts, 11; sub: O Telesford, 46). Substitutes not used: A Adams, H Tinto, A Pierre, J Williams, K Thomas, J Gay.

England (4-4-2): D James (sub: J Hart, 46) — G Johnson, R Ferdinand (sub: P Jagielka, 46), J Woodgate, W Bridge (sub: S Warnock, 84) — D Beckham (sub: D Bentley, 46), S Gerrard, G Barry, S Downing (sub: A Young, 57) — D Ashton (sub: P Crouch, 46), J Defoe (sub: T Walcott, 69). Substitutes not used: J Lewis, D Wheater, T Huddlestone, G Agbonlahor. Booked: Gerrard.

Referee: E Wijngaarde (Surinam)
Attendance: 25,001

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