FOR the first half it was echoes of Macedonia two years ago rather than Croatia last month but England got it right in the end. With a 100% record at the top of their World Cup qualifying group, they approach Wednesday’s more demanding test in Belarus in good heart.

England were poor throughout the first 45 minutes, when they failed to get a shot on target, and judgment should probably be reserved on whether their Wembley complex is a thing of the past but as their unsung opponents tired they waxed stronger, rattling in five in the second half. Wayne Rooney, man of the match, contributed two of them and much more besides.

At 2-1 with a quarter of an hour left, there were 89,000 hearts in mouths in the capacity crowd but by the end the transformation was so great that England were scoring almost at will. Jermain Defoe, on for Rooney after 86 minutes, got on the scoresheet immediately.

Rio Ferdinand celebrated his elevation to the captaincy, in place of the injured John Terry, with the first goal, but anybody who thought Kazakhstan would cave in was wrong. They might have scored first had not Tanat Nuserbayev shot over from close range and they would have equalised after 53 minutes but for David James’s flying save to deny Nuserbayev. Instead, England went 2-0 up when Alexandr Kuchma, under pressure from Rooney, headed Frank Lampard’s free kick into his own net.

A woeful mistake by Ashley Cole brought Kazakhstan back into contention, the full-back’s careless back-pass allowing Zhambyl Kukeyev to beat James with aplomb. Cole was booed mercilessly thereafter but England’s collective blushes were spared when Rooney scored twice within 10 minutes.

Initial interest focused on England’s formation, which was basically 4-3-3, with Theo Walcott and Rooney to the right and left respectively of Emile Heskey, and Steven Gerrard and Lampard to either side of the holding man, Gareth Barry, in midfield. In defence, Matthew Upson was promoted to fill the central vacancy caused by Terry’s absence, with Wes Brown preferred to Glen Johnson at right-back. Upson was error-prone and it is to be hoped that Terry emerges fully restored from the fitness test he is to take tomorrow morning.

The familiar debate about whether Gerrard and Lampard could operate effectively in harness had been given an extra edge by England’s success in Zagreb, where Gerrard was absent, injured. The Liverpool captain had expressed tacit doubts on the subject in this newspaper. His comments were ludicrously described as “sulking” or an “intemperate outburst”. In reality, Gerrard was talking frankly about an issue that has been shirked for too long by those concerned, and his honesty should have been welcomed, not criticised in an era of “take each game as it comes” blandness.

England won well against Croatia not because Gerrard was missing but because Lampard played with a new positional discipline and curbed his runs so that he did not get in Rooney’s way. The head coach, Fabio Capello, said on the eve of the match that Gerrard needed to play “more like he does for Liverpool”, which was the player’s point. Too often for England he has not been given that opportunity. He started on the right here but clearly had the licence to drift across the width of the field and eventually the two “square pegs” fitted well enough in that previously round hole.

Capello had called on the crowd to get behind his men rather than on their backs but, when it was still goalless after half an hour, the murmurs of discontent started. Capello had also been at pains to play down expectations of Walcott after his heroics against Croatia, pointing out that, at 19, he would have disappointing games as well as matchwinning ones. This fell somewhere between the two, a seven out of 10 performance.

The match might have followed a more pleasing course had not the Arsenal tyro’s early cross from the right found Heskey blocked out by Alexandr Kislitsyn’s assiduous attentions in the goalmouth. When Walcott opted to go it alone, he cut inside at pace, past three defenders, but his left-foot shot from 20 yards was just too high. The fans had no problem with that but, when the young man wasted a good crossfield pass from Rooney by playing the ball well beyond Heskey, the mistake was marked by conspicuous groans. Walcott was replaced in the second half by David Beckham, who won his 106th cap to draw level with Sir Bobby Charlton.

As the interval approached, with Kazakhstan comfortable, there were overtones of disapproval – understandably so, for England, with 10 strikes of varying inaccuracy, had failed to test Alexandr Mokin in the visitors’ goal.

Kazakhstan ought to have taken the lead within two minutes of the resumption, when Sabyrkhan Ibrayev delivered a testing cross that Sergey Ostapenko headed down for Nuserbayev. At close range, he should have scored but lifted his shot over. England wasted no time in taking punitive advantage. Within two minutes Lampard had put over a well-placed corner from the left that Mokin failed to reach, enabling Ferdinand to bury a firm header at the far post.

England’s second came after 65 minutes, when Kuchma, under aerial pressure from Rooney, headed a free kick from Lampard into his own net. The announcer credited the score to Rooney but there was no doubt that it was an own goal.

Game over? Hardly. Four minutes later, Cole chested the ball down on the left touchline and thoughtlessly passed back towards James. Towards, rather than to. Kukeyev intercepted easily and shot coolly past England’s helpless goalkeeper.

Kazakhstan were still dangerous on the break and it was with relief that the crowd acclaimed England’s third, in the 76th minute, when Rooney headed in Brown’s right-wing cross. Kazakhstan were broken at last. Rooney scored his second at close range, then withdrew to tumultuous applause, leaving it to Defoe, played in by Heskey, to make it five.

Easy? Not entirely, but it would be churlish to complain about 5-1 any time, anywhere.