England find answers to key questions

Football should never be confused with medicine or science but Kevin Keegan went into a metaphorical laboratory last night and when he re-emerged it was with a successfully completed experiment in his hand.

Keegan's decision to mix a potion including the unproven qualities of Emile Heskey and the volatile element of Dennis Wise raised more than few doubts about the England's coach's critical faculties, but while the result was hardly magic, Keegan had created a pleasing blend. It has the potential to get stronger.

Keegan had said beforehand it was a night for questions and answers. By the end of a most satisfactory evening for Keegan personally and for England in general, Keegan had only emphatic answers. A serious bonus was that they were all overwhelmingly positive.

Argentina may still be unbeaten by England since 1980 but with Euro 2000 looming and England's next fixture not until the end of May, the score-line was not the issue - this was Keegan's last real opportunity to conjure with imponderables. To Keegan's pleasure the trio of Heskey, Wise and Jason Wilcox all answered his call to seize their moment.

Heskey, especially in a vivid England first-half display, was the best player on the pitch. Robust, aggressive and skilful, Heskey was scarcely recognisable as the timid Leicester City striker with five goals this season.

His impressive 78 minutes before being replaced by Andy Cole should go a long way to guaranteeing Heskey a flight to Holland and Belgium in June.

"If he plays like that here for Leicester on Sunday, Tranmere are in for a torrid time," Keegan said. "His goal record has been criticised but you saw tonight the things we see in training."

Heskey was the personification of a good evening overall. "In terms of the performance it was everything I wanted," Keegan said.

"Argentina are a fantastic side, they won 2-0 in Spain which is not easy to do. But I thought they tried to kill the game because they realised they could not take these guys like they could Spain." The emotional Keegan said it was a display he hoped Stanley Matthews would have been proud of.

Admittedly, England's high tempo waned somewhat in the second half, but both Wise and Wilcox justified their inclusion by continuing to play with tenacity and discipline. David Beckham, prior to limping off with a sore foot with around 20 minutes remaining, also did enough in the playmaker's role to warrant another try there.

He can only get better there and this was far from a bad start. As Keegan said: "Rome wasn't built in a day."

The single disappointment, in fact, came in blue and white stripes and was Gabriel Batistuta. Sadly the famed fearsome Fiorentina forward was toothless. A solitary shot comfortably stopped by David Seaman was the closest Batistuta came to adding to his 50 goals in now 70 internationals.

Batistuta departed after 56 minutes. Those had been the best minutes. After that the dense pattern of play began to unravel in a flurry of substitutions.

The start had been very different. Within the first six minutes Ariel Ortega had danced past Sol Campbell on the right wing and whipped in a dangerous cross, while at the other end the Argentina goalkeeper Pablo Cavallero was a touch cavalier with a routine clearance.

Cavallero's dallying allowed Heskey to rapidly close down the space, enough to even get a boot on the ball. It ran to Alan Shearer, and with Cavallero stranded away from his goal, the England captain had an empty net to aim at. Shearer missed it by the distance of Wembley Way. The ball had come to Shearer at speed but nonetheless, it was a reasonable chance.

Those two events were indicative of an entertaining, incident-filled opening, much of which was dominated by a vibrant England. Heskey's willingness and confidence in possession was fundamental to this. The Argentinians were sufficiently disturbed by the muscular aggression of the Leicester man nicknamed Bruno that they removed their captain Roberto Sensini 10 minutes before half-time.

Nominally, Sensini had been patrolling Heskey.

In England's most dangerous attack of the first half Sensini was rendered an irrelevance by Heskey. Having chased and collected the ball wide on the left, Heskey simply ran around the Argentinian - who plays for Lazio - surged into the area and delivered a low cross that bisected Cavallero and his defenders.

Shearer burst toward the ball but met it falling. When he saw that Beckham was claiming that Jose Chamot was responsible for his fall Shearer complained too, but it was not a penalty.

Sensini, to his displeasure, was replaced soon after that although five minutes before the interval Heskey again set off on a similar spurt from the same position and left Chamot embarrassed by his directness. Heskey crossed when he might have had a shot.

In between, Shearer had put a header from a Beckham corner inches wide and Beckham shivered a post with a swerving 25-yard free-kick. Beckham kept England on the front foot with some jabbed passing and neat interplay.

He was aided in this by Wise, showing intelligence and caution in equal measure. It's true. And even if Cavallero was not being forced into save after save, it was still encouraging.

For all that, there was a feeling that Argentina were playing within themselves. Batistuta's premature removal was supplied as evidence of Argentina's approach but this was negated rather by the tackling in midfield and at the back. Rodolfo Arruabarrena was booked for one particularly high lunge at Beckham.

With Beckham replaced by Ray Parlour amid the rash of substitutions, inevitably the game's rhythm was affected. Much of the fluent passing from both sides subsided into scrappy tussling.

The match was dissolving. But for Keegan the sense of drift which accompanied the aftermath of England's last international here against Scotland in November had been erased.

As Shearer said: "We went a long way to getting Scotland out of our system. "

The formula is not perfected but maybe Keegan is beginning to ask the right questions.

England: Seaman, Dyer (P Neville 58), Southgate, Wise, Campbell, Keown (R. Ferdinand 46), Beckham (Parlour 72), Scholes, Shearer (Phillips 77), Heskey (Cole 79), Wilcox. Subs Not Used: Martyn, Sinclair. Booked: Beckham, Wise.

Argentina: Cavallero, Ayala, Arruabarrena (Vivas 66), Sensini (Pocchettino 35), Simeone, Chamot, Kily Gonzalez, Zanetti, Batistuta (Crespo 56), Ortega (G. Lopez 90), Veron. Subs Not Used: Burgos, Husain, C. Lopez. Booked: Arruabarrena, Ortega, Chamot, Ayala. Att: 74,008.

Referee: M Merk (Germany).

FIFA plan to establish a list of professional referees by the end of 2000 who would officiate at the 2002 World Cup finals.

FIFA said the salaries of the professional referees would be paid by the national association in countries with a professional league.

Where such a league structure did not exist FIFA would pay their salaries.

"The professional referee must and will be introduced. It is not logical for a game that is becoming increasingly professional to still be refereed by amateurs," said FIFA president Joseph Blatter in a statement yesterday.

No firm date was given for the introduction of the professional officials but they would be in place in time to take charge of matches at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan.