England 4 Greece 0: Were he not so ambitious, Steve McClaren might almost wish his career as England manager could end on the night it began. A 4-0 win, with the goals struck by the interval, was the best result recorded by anyone in their first outing in the post since Walter Winterbottom's men crushed Northern Ireland 7-2 60 years ago.
If the match was quiet for a little while, McClaren did not at least have to wait too long for a suitably symbolic opening to his tenure. A manager who is bound to promise a new era could hope for no more than a goal from the man he has chosen to captain England for the first time.
A Frank Lampard free-kick in the 15th minute was met by the brow of Peter Crouch and the goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis reacted with an unsatisfactory punch. Stewart Downing nodded the ball back into the middle and John Terry headed home.
Greece opened brightly enough before England settled and crushed them.
The status of the occasion had weighed on the public mind. When an England side with a shrunken post-World Cup reputation encountered a stadium that has just been expanded to a 76,000 capacity the consequences were inevitable. There was no need to open the upper tier of the Stretford End but those who had turned up were rewarded for that loyalty.
England players had reported training sessions were more demanding than they had been under Sven-Goran Eriksson and that may have contributed to the purposefulness shown here. No one, even so, had anticipated a 4-0 lead by the interval.
Jermain Defoe, with much to prove after being omitted from the World Cup party this summer, split the back four with a beautiful pass through the inside-left channel after 30 minutes and Lampard surged through to finish with the help of a deflection off Paraskevas Antzas. The Greece centre-half had been enduring a traumatic night with even Crouch, alert to his slowness, threatening to sprint away from him. The Liverpool forward contributed in more familiar fashion in the 35th minute. Downing's cross was deflected to Lampard and once Nikopolidis parried a Lampard effort Crouch pounced to net from close range.
Three minutes from the end, the scorer puzzlingly pulled out of connecting with a Gary Neville delivery but play was turned back to Downing and Crouch headed from his service. With that, the attacker had racked up eight goals from his eight England appearances in 2006. Even so, McClaren's jubilation at such a spectacular start to his reign must have been greater still.
A sense of gratitude radiated wider at the beginning of the second half. Chris Kirkland, the Liverpool goalkeeper who is on loan at Wigan, was brought on for Paul Robinson. In consequence his father Eddie and a few friends will collect £10,000 they are due after a bet made when he was a boy that Kirkland would represent England.
Downing, in his first start for his country, set up three goals by half-time. Life will not continue in that fashion, but the Boro winger has every cause to feel he has made a start in showing that he can thrive at a higher level. When a bemused Greece reacted to the ignominy with a trace of forcefulness Ashley Cole was in place to clear from the goalline within the space of a few seconds.
Steven Gerrard accepted duties on the right and did not let that stop him from charging into other areas when appropriate. In the centre of the field, Owen Hargreaves was outstanding. His energy drove the side and, at the stadium where he would like to play his club football, the one regret for Manchester United must be he will have raised further the fee Bayern Munich will set if they can be talked into selling him. For McClaren, this reassuring win was pricless.
ENGLAND: Robinson (Kirkland 45), Gary Neville (Carragher 78), Ferdinand, Terry, Cole (Bridge 80), Gerrard (Bent 78), Lampard, Hargreaves, Downing (Lennon 69), Defoe (Richardson 69), Crouch. Subs Not Used: Young, Phil Neville, Brown, Dawson, Jenas, Wright-Phillips, Foster. Goals: Terry 14, Lampard 30, Crouch 35, 42.
GREECE: Nikopolidis, Fyssas (Lagos 29), Dellas (Anatolakis 64), Katsouranis, Antzas (Kyrgiakos 45), Vyntra, Zagorakis (Basinas 45), Karagounis, Giannakopoulos (Salpigidis 45), Samaras (Amanatidis 45), Charisteas. Subs Not Used: Chalkias, Kafes, Gekas, Papadopoulos, Georgeas.
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany).
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