England stumble into last 16

England ... 2 Trinidad & Tobago ... 0It's not often a team simultaneously secures its place in the second round of a major championship with a 2-0 win and leaves almost everyone present more convinced than ever that they're simply not good enough to go all the way.

In Nuremberg yesterday, however, England pulled it off rather handsomely.

After Saturday's narrow win over Paraguay, late goals from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard made it two wins out of two. But while England are now assured of their place in the last 16, there was little here to suggest they can bank on being in Germany for longer than that.

Against a side containing a couple of English Premiership veterans and a handful of players drawn from the English lower leagues, Sven-Goran Eriksson's side did win - which is more than the Swedes managed last week. But it wasn't until the arrival of Aaron Lennon and Wayne Rooney midway through the second half that they looked like a team that knew how to convert the abundance of possession they were enjoying into a much-needed victory.

In the end, Crouch's goal settled nerves, Gerrard's the game. But there will be lingering concerns about the finishing - the first goal didn't arrive until the 83rd minute of a contest in which the English had enjoyed more than two-thirds of possession and squandered an even higher percentage of the chances. Some of the defending too will come under scrutiny.

Afterwards, Eriksson insisted England would improve as the tournament progressed - and they will need to.

His opposite number pointed to how quickly they abandoned attempts to play through opponents and reverted to long balls toward Crouch as a potential difficulty in the weeks ahead.

"I think they and Sweden suffer from many of the same problems," observed Dutchman Leo Beenhakker, who coached Real Madrid to three Spanish titles and oversaw his own country's campaign at the 1990 finals. "I know players like (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic and Crouch invite a long ball, but when you do that you leave out a lot of good players in midfield.

"Our plan today," he continued, "was to survive for the first 20 minutes and then see whether England would look for Crouch and then get into a fight for the second ball. They did and, unfortunately, despite all the courage my guys showed, they scored with a few minutes left.

"But I think when they come up against the bigger, better teams in the later stages of the competition they are going to have to show a little bit more patience."

One of those whose role clearly changed as the game progressed was Frank Lampard, who repeatedly found himself in a hunt for knockdowns.

"Sometimes you've got to mix it up," he said afterwards, "and the reality is that I had quite a few chances in the box there today, a couple of them I should have scored."

The Chelsea midfielder saw the arrival of Rooney as something that had lifted the crowd more than the team, while the addition of Lennon on the right, with David Beckham switching to right back, had had more of an impact on the game itself.

"He injected pace down that side, which made a difference," he said. "And Crouch kept trying up front until finally the goal came for him late on."

The real importance of Rooney's 32 minutes of action, suggested Eriksson, is that it puts an end to the speculation over when he might return and marks an important step forward in his rehabilitation.

"If I hadn't used him today then we would have lost four or five days in the process," said Eriksson, who repeatedly insisted outside doctors would no longer be involved in assessing the striker's fitness.

"Now," he added, "we know he will be better next time."

Though it's true Lennon made the greater impact on this occasion, the return of the vastly more experienced 20-year-old has clearly not come a moment too soon.

England's remaining games at this World Cup, no matter how many there are, will all be much tougher than this, and on present form they do not look remotely capable of negotiating their way through to the latter stages without his explosive combination of power and pace.

His introduction yesterday came after a dismal first half for England and an equally poor start to the second.

When Crouch missed his side's best chance of the opening period, a hopelessly miscued volley set up for him by the good work of Steve Gerrard and Beckham, the English appeared to have hit a particular low.

Within 90 seconds, though, it took an athletic clearance off the line by John Terry just to keep them level after Stern John got the better of Rio Ferdinand to head Dwight Yorke's cross goalwards.

England dominated throughout but their finishing was generally abysmal, Lampard, Michael Owen and Joe Cole - as well as, repeatedly, Crouch - all guilty of woeful attempts from in or around the box.

England's inability to even get shots on target was a tribute to Beenhakker - who had made just one change to the side that drew with Sweden but had switched tactics, opting for a more defensive line-up - and his men, who again worked tirelessly to achieve an unlikely result.

With the game still scoreless, they rattled the English more than once on the break, but their inability to retain possession inevitably made life extremely difficult, as England's sense of urgency steadily grew.

The goals, when they eventually came, did at least remind us that England do possess a bit of quality if only they could make more of it.

Crouch finally found the target by comfortably beating Brent Sancho at the far post after a fine move that started with Ashley Cole's long diagonal ball out of the defence and, after Lennon had laid it off, finished with Beckham's pinpoint cross.

Seven minutes later, Gerrard's was a fine strike from an almost standing start with two Trinidad and Tobago defenders standing off the midfielder for a fraction too long before he unleashed a shot that left Hislop utterly helpless.

In the dying seconds, Stern John had a goal rightly disallowed for offside, but even now his side retains some hope of getting to the second round.

For them, it would be a dream come true. For England, meanwhile, it is only where the hard work begins.

SUBSTITUTIONS

ENGLAND: Lennon for Carragher (58 mins), Downing for Joe Cole (74 mins), Rooney for Owen (58 mins). Subs not used: Campbell, James, Bridge, Hargreaves, Jenas, Carrick, Carson, Walcott, Neville. Booked: Lampard.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Hislop, Edwards, Sancho, Lawrence, Gray, Birchall, Whitley, Yorke, Theobald (Wise 85), Stern John, Jones (Glen 70). Subs not used: Cox, Latapy, Samuel, Charles, Scotland, Ince, Wolfe, Andrews, Jack. Booked: Theobald, Whitley, Jones, Hislop, Gray.

Referee: Toru Kamikawa (Japan).