London - An experimental England side ended their World Cup qualification campaign with a laboured 3-0 win over Belarus on Wednesday. "Something good, something not so good," was England manager Fabio Capello's assessment.
"I was not happy at half time. We had to wait many times to win back the ball. It was better in the second half and the ball possession was good."
England topped their qualifying group with nine wins out of ten, their only blemish coming in Saturday's 1-0 defeat in Ukraine.
"Tonight was an important night getting over the loss," said David Beckham. "We needed to end on a high.
"We didn't play badly last time with ten men. We wanted to end the campaign well.
"We all have to prove every game every training session that we want to be in the squad."
Peter Crouch put England ahead after six minutes, Shaun Wright-Phillips added a second on the hour, and Crouch knocked in his second with 15 minutes remaining.
"Sometimes it's difficult to get involved in the game," said Crouch, "but you always know you'll get chances in this team and happy to put two away."
England got off to the perfect start, Shaun Wright-Phillips having shot narrowly wide even before Crouch struck.
Gareth Barry sent a ball down the left for Gabriel Agbonlahor, who crossed for Crouch to nudge unconvincingly over the line.
Thereafter, though, the game rather fizzled out until half-time.
England began the second half brightly and Frank Lampard drew a useful save from Belarus goalkeeper Yuri Zhevnov with a clipped free-kick.
The second soon followed. Wright-Phillips's low shot didn't seem particularly threatening, but with Zhevnov unsighted, the ball trickled into the bottom right corner.
Belarus rallied, and a neat passing move laid in Sergei Omelyanchuk, who drew a remarkable reaction save from Ben Foster - only playing because of an injury to David James.
The introduction of Carlton Cole gave England renewed impetus, and Crouch added the third on 75 minutes, capitalising after Zhevov had parried Cole's drive.
It was his 18th international goal in 35 appearances, of which only 17 have been starts.
England were largely happy to keep possession after that, but then, in the space of the minute, both James Milner and David Beckham struck the post.
Beckham, remarkably, has never scored a England goal at Wembley.
