England down Scotland 3-0 at Wembley

Gordon Strachan’s men had a couple of good chances to equalise early in the second half, but while they wasted them, England took theirs clinically via Adam Lallana and Gary Gahill and cruised to a comfortable win in the end.

Southgate was charged with steadying the ship in the final four matches of a turbulent year, which England will end top of their World Cup qualifying group after Friday’s 3-0 win against oldest foes Scotland. “[His future] is not in our hands, we just do as well as we can and it was a good three points”.

Scotland’s manager claimed the margin of England’s victory was not a reflection of the 90 minutes. Scotland played with great spirit and endeavour, pressed us, did not allow us to control the game until late.

Indeed, with the exception of a number of sloppy moments in the England defence, it took until the 21st minute for the first notable piece of action when Wayne Rooney saw a 25-yard free kick clip the top of the wall and fly past the post.

Strachan’s sentiments were nearly an echo of those he made in Bratislava last month – after another 3-0 defeat.

“I think there’s a lot of going into the classroom for Gareth with England, he’ll learn in the job and I think he’ll learn well – he’s got the capacity and the brain power”.

“It’s nearly very similar to Slovakia in that we feel like we’re doing well in the game, things are working and then we’re getting punished”.

Strachan added: “I’ve got to go away and have a wee look at it now and we have a debrief”.

The West Brom midfielder refused to write off Scotland’s chances of making it to Russian Federation, though.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges you can face”, he said.

Ensuring a positive result in a clash between the “auld rivals” was generally seen as crucial to Southgate’s hopes of landing the job after his first game in charge, a straightforward 2-0 win over Malta, was followed by a torrid goalless draw in Slovenia.

Perhaps due to rest, reflection or shock, he has shown signs of life in United’s recent matches and Southgate has confirmed the forward will start tonight. I’m not sure anybody else has had this many games for everybody to assess what you’re doing.

While England were guilty of sloppiness at times against the Scots, particularly in the opening exchanges of each half, they proved far more ruthless in front of goal than industrious but limited opponents. They had to do what they could to chase the game simply because of the magnitude of the fixture, but all that did was open spaces for the home side to exploit. His only thoughts, he said, were for the players.

“I’ve avoided answering that because I don’t think it’s necessary”, Southgate said when asked if it was right to assume he wants it full-time.