Kazakhstan 0 England 4:England scored twice in each half to claim a comfortable 4-0 win in Kazakhstan and their sixth straight World Cup 2010 qualification success.
Gareth Barry celebrated his €14 million switch to Manchester City by nodding home a 40th-minute opener and Emile Heskey tapped home a second on the stroke of half-time. Goals from Wayne Rooney (72) and Frank Lampard (penalty, 77) put the gloss on a comfortable evening's work for Fabio Capello's side.
England made a nervy start with Kazakhstan coming desperately close to an opener inside 20 seconds, but an alert John Terry cleared off the line. England continued to struggle against their energetic hosts and it was no surprise when Kazakhstan had the ball in the net after 18 minutes when a curling free-kick into the box was misjudged by debutant Robert Green and Sergey Ostapenko headed home, only to see his celebrations cut short by a linesman's flag.
Rooney had England's only meaningful effort on goal with 24 minutes played when he linked up well with Steven Gerrard, but his 25-yard strike flew wide.
And five minutes later, England were unfortunate not to take the lead when a fine move saw Heskey's shot strike the post and bounce across goal.
But England took the lead after 40 minutes when Gerrard's left-footed cross picked out Barry at the back post and City's newest recruit headed low across goal and into the corner of the net.
And five minutes later, Heskey doubled the lead when he was on hand to tap home from close range when the goalkeeper had flapped at the ball after Gerrard's intended pass deflected goalwards, leaving the Aston Villa man with the simplest of tasks.
The second half started at a lethargic pace, with England seemingly happy to hold their 2-0 advantage.
But England netted their third when good work from Glen Johnson down the right saw Rooney's effort clawed off the line by the keeper. The chance appeared to have gone, but Rooney, with his back to goal, acrobatically hooked the ball in the roof of the net to make it 3-0 after 72 minutes.
And a fourth arrived five minutes later when Lampard lashed a penalty into the roof of the net after Heskey had been pulled down in the area.
The victory means England have a 100 per cent record at the top of their World Cup qualification table and they can expect to make it seven when Andorra are the visitors to Wembley on Wednesday.