There have no doubt been times over the past few days, holed up in their hotel here, when England’s players have wondered just how hard it would be to commandeer a boat and set it on a course for nearby Barbados. Contrary to what they might say publicly, they do not always regard it as an honour to play for their country. At the end of a gruelling season, they are more likely to view it with the fondness they usually reserve for a sit-down interview with Garth Crooks.

Among such world-weary senior players, the presence and enthusiasm of several uncapped youngsters must at least have done something to raise spirits on the training pitch and around the hotel, but, of the players who boarded the flight back to London last night, few are likely to have felt as jaded as Dean Ashton, who, having had to wait almost two years to make his debut at international level, trudged towards the dressing-room at half-time in the knowledge that it – or, more specifically, he – had not proved worth the wait.

It is harsh to judge a player on his first 45 minutes in an England shirt, but that is what a manager such as Fabio Capello will do. Ashton had the opportunity, against a severely limited Trinidad & Tobago team, to prove that he could be integral to the new manager’s plans, but he could not take it. While Jermain Defoe certainly made the most of his chance, Ashton did not. On the one occasion he showed his customary intelligence, pulling away from the defender at the far post to meet David Beckham’s cross, his technique was all wrong as he sent his volley skywards.

His mood cannot have been helped by the fact that Peter Crouch, his replacement, set up a goal just four minutes into the second half, nodding down David Bentley’s cross to tee up Defoe for his second of the evening.

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Capello, like Rafael BenÍtez at Liverpool, has appeared determined to avoid picking Crouch, but if a target man is to be essential to the Italian’s tactical plan, the former Southampton forward appears a far more likely bet than Ashton. Neither player is helped, in terms of others’ perception, by his build – one a towering 6ft 7in and the other carrying an inch or two too many around his midriff – but, while Crouch challenges prejudices, Ashton’s display reinforced the belief that he will never be mobile enough to flourish as an international forward.

How different might it have been when Ashton, having flourished since joining West Ham United from Norwich City for £7 million, was due to make his England debut against Greece in August 2006 in Steve McClaren’s first game in charge, only to break his ankle in training the day before the match.

Ashton has worked hard to return to fitness and to keep off the weight, scoring six goals in the final eight games of the Barclays Premier League season for West Ham, but is he fit enough or mobile enough to prove the missing link for Capello’s England? Almost certainly not.