England 2 Hungary 1
Jagielka o.g 62 Gerrard 69 Gerrard 73
It was 0-0 at half-time and some of the 72,000 booed England off.
Walcott had given Adam Johnson the best chance of the first half but the Man City winger sidefooted a sitter over the bar.
There had been a helluva lot of talk about booing.
If people needed “closure”, they had to boo.
Michael Dawson came on at half-time and dived in and got beaten far too easily and a shot hit Jagielka and two-thirds of the ball went over the line before Dawson cleared. A French linesman gave a goal.
Gerrard powered onto a loose ball and blasted in a bender from distance for 1-1.
Brilliant to see Jack Wilshere come on for 10 minutes. Gibbs attacked well and looked promising.
When Zoltan Gera had a one-on-one against Joe Hart, the big man stood up and waited. It was : I’m right here, you’ve got a lot to do to beat me from there.
And Gera shot straight at him. Thank you very much. One nil to Joe.
Then Bobby Zamora found sub Ashley Young on the left, his pass into the box went to Gerrard, two defenders thought Stevie G would go right and shoot again with his right foot. Captain Fantastic went left and stabbbed in from close range with his right.
2-1 to Engerland !
Playing 4-3-3, rather than a rigid, obsolete 4-4-2, England looked quite good at times against a weak Hungarian side who had nothing wide and nothing in midfield. Their back four defended well.
It’s a shame that an achilles injury prevented Bobby Zamora being capped last season. He’s a big striker who is tidy. A decent technician.
In a qualifying group, England can win games by knocking the ball around. And that is Zamora’s game. He’s muscular but moves intelligently and keeps the ball. He can help England because international football is about not giving the ball away.
Note : England scored two goals after Rooney was taken off.
ENGLAND (4-2-3-1): Hart (Manchester City); Glenn Johnson (Liverpool), Jagielka (Everton), Terry (Chelsea), A Cole (Chelsea); Walcott (Arsenal), Lampard (Chelsea); Barry (Manchester City), Gerrard (Liverpool), Adam Johnson (Manchester City); Rooney (Manchester United).
Subs used Gibbs (Arsenal) for Ashley Cole, h-t; Dawson (Tottenham) for Terry, h-t; Young (Aston Villa) for Walcott, h-t; Zamora (Fulham) for Lampard, h-t; Milner (Aston Villa) for Rooney, 67; Wilshere (Arsenal) for Gerrard, 82.
HUNGARY(4-4-2): Kiraly (1860 Munich); Szelesi (Olympiakos Volos), Juhasz (Anderlecht), Liptak (Fehervar), Vanczak (Sion); Huszti (Zenit St Petersburg), Vadocz (Osasuna), Elek (Videoton), Dzsudzsak (PSV Eindhoven); Rudolf (Genoa), Gera (Fulham).
Subs used Laczko (Debrecen) for Vanczak, h-t; Hajnal (Borussia Dortmund) for Huszti, h-t; Koman (Sampdoria) for Dzsudzsak, h-t; Komlosi (Debrecen) for Liptak, 55; Toth (Venlo) for Elek, 59; Priskin (Ipswich) for Rudolf, 82.
Referee Stephane Lannoy (France).
Crowd : 72,024.