Friday 9 October 2015 23:29, UK
Roy Hodgson says Ross Barkley is developing into an important player after his man of the match performance against Estonia.
England made it nine wins from nine games as they breezed past Estonia 2-0 at Wembley with goals from Theo Walcott and Raheem Sterling.
But it was Barkley that shone the brightest in the England midfield, playing in Walcott for the opening goal with a carefully crafted nutmeg and twice being denied by smart saves from Estonia goalkeeper Mihkel Aksalu.
It was a performance that landed him the official man of the match award from the sponsors and from Terry Butcher, who was watching the game for Sky Sports News HQ in the studio.
Still only 21-years-old, Barkley has already won 16 caps for England is fast becoming one of Hodgson's main men, having played the majority of England's last three qualifiers.
"I think he's been important to the group for a long time. He's been maturing over a period of time, we've seen his performances at Everton and we've seen it with his performances for England too.
Hodgson said: "It was great for him to go out tonight and play as well as he did in an important qualifying match. I thought there were some other good performances apart from his too. Ross deserves a lot of credit and a lot of plaudits for the way he played today.
"The victory is the main thing. We've seen more and more in European football how hard it is to get results. Really and truly all games are won by the odd goal.
"Quite often the teams that you think are the really big teams are having to work hard to get their one-goal victories but that's because the teams that we don't maybe rank as high are getting tougher and tougher to play against. There is literally no easy game at international level so you've got to play properly like we did from the start. Be patient and keep working away."
