Thursday 9 October 2014 23:26, UK
England boss Roy Hodgson admitted the scoreline could have been much bigger after seeing his side stroll to a 5-0 European qualifying win over San Marino.
Hodgson’s side were in control throughout on Thursday, but it was a largely forgettable evening at Wembley as a Phil Jagielka header and a Wayne Rooney penalty gave England an underwhelming 2-0 lead at the break.
The second half saw a slight increase in tempo as Danny Welbeck added a third on 49 minutes before Andros Townsend stepped off the bench to make it four and Alessandro Della Valle put through his own net to wrap things up.
I think could we have scored a lot more. I was disappointed the goal got chalked off, I thought that was a little bit harsh.
Adam Lallana also had a second-half goal disallowed for offside for deflecting Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s strike into the net, in a game which saw England have 34 attempts on goal.
"I think could we have scored a lot more. I was disappointed the goal got chalked off, I thought that was a little bit harsh," Hodgson told Sky Sports.
"I thought there were quite a few occasions where we were a little bit unlucky not to get more goals because we did play - especially in the second half - very much in their penalty area.
"But what pleased me most was that we kept trying to do the right things right throughout the game and even right at the end when we were leading 5-0 and lost the ball, I thought the recovery runs were fantastic."
A crowd of 55,990 saw England claim the three points in Group E ahead of their trip to Estonia, and Hodgson was full of praise for the support.
"I thought the crowd were magnificent - 55,000 people - it would surprise me if there’s any bigger crowds in Europe for these games," he said.
"They seemed to enjoy themselves. They were tremendous for us. They gave us the feeling that they were getting good entertainment and were enjoying what they saw.
"That’s a great satisfaction for all of us."
