England 4 Slovakia 0

In the build up to Saturday's friendly with Slovakia all the talk had been about David Beckham setting a new record number of caps for an England outfield player, so much so that manager Fabio Capello chastised the media for not asking a single question about today's opponents in his pre-match match press conference.

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Wayne Rooney fires in his second goal

And the only nod to history in Capello's starting eleven was the retro new Umbro kit the squad paraded for the first time as the anthems blared at Wembley. Bobby Moore, the man Beckham would surpass when he eventually took to the pitch for his 109th cap, would not have looked out of place in it.

Capello instead chose to look to the future as he rewarded 21-year-old Tottenham Hotspur winger Aaron Lennon for his improved form at White Hart Lane with a starting place on the right of England's midfield. The youngster's emergence at the 2006 World Cup was one of the reasons that Beckham was dropped by former England boss Steve McClaren but Lennon never met expectations and his demise lead to Beckham's recall.

But now the pacy winger is back in form, back in the England team and he was quickly back into the action here at Wembley as he provided an early cross that was cut out at the near post as Emile Heskey lurked.

There have been question marks about Lennon's decision making and delivery of the final ball and his next attempted cross was deflected into the path of Frank Lampard, whose shot forced a good save from Slovakia goalkeeper Stefan Senecky, rather than delivered to his colleague by design.

Still, Capello had turned to Lennon to provide his team with blistering pace in the absence of Arsenal's Theo Walcott and his speed helped him beat the offside trap on 10 minutes. Although he made the wrong decision to pull the ball back to the edge of the box rather than shoot his immediate impact was a pre-cursor to a lively half.

When England's opening goal did arrive it came down the opposite flank as the unlikely duo of Wayne Rooney and Steve Gerrard combined to provide Emile Heskey with a tap in after only seven minutes. Rooney later scored twice while Lampard added one.