Published: 6 September 2013

By TIM SANDERS at Wembley

England fans came to Wembley for a goal feast against Moldova and they weren’t disappointed. Any nerves were dispelled after eleven minutes when Lampard laid the ball back to Gerrard who scored with a sharply taken daisy-cutter that curled inside the left post.

England began to put their passes together and there was little surprise when, after  a period of sustained England pressure during which Wilshire forced a good save from the Moldovan goalkeeper Pascenco, Lambert poached the second in the 26^th minute. The first half ended with a fine individual goal from Welbeck who latched on to a sublime through ball from Lambert.

Five minutes into the second half Welbeck scored his second from a deft chip by none other than Lambert again. At 4-0 the game was well and truly over and the satisfied fans began to trickle homewards as the game degenerated into a training session. Those who left early missed a fine cameo performance from new boy Ross Barclay, who replaced a tiring and battered Wilshere in the 59^th minute. The useful Lambert left the field to a well-deserved standing ovation by the crowd in the 70th minute, to be replaced by Milner. Welbeck moved to a central position in search of his hat trick, but despite coming close on a couple of occasions had to settle for his brace on the night.

All in all a good, workman-like performance by England that, to be honest, was more of a stroll in the park than a testing workout in preparation for later, far stronger, opponents. As a measure of Moldova’s negative approach, Joe Hart in the England goal spent most of the evening as a spectator and was not forced to make a single save. The experienced pairing of Gerrard (man of the match) and Lampard worked well, Welbeck showed lethal form and Lambert may, just may, turn out to be more than a stop gap striker. As for the North London boys, Wilshere bustled to good effect throughout the first half and Walker and Walcott linked up well together on the right. It was a pity that Hodgson didn’t give Townsend, rather than the pedestrian Milner, the chance to show his good recent form – that would have delighted the Spurs fans.

The only black mark on a satisfactory night for England was the yellow card Welbeck received for continuing to play on after being ruled offside. He looked bemused and Hodgson was incandescent, as the card means that the forward is ruled out of next week’s crucial game against Ukraine.