Football: Revitalised England win nothing but respect: Venables' team scores comprehensive victory over Greek side preparing to travel to the United States for World Cup finals

England. .5

Greece . .0

TWO GAMES, two good wins and the new era is off to the most promising of starts. The Greeks came to Wembley expecting to lose and left with an even deeper respect for the new England after a real drubbing.

Terry Venables will have been pleased with the manner, as much as the magnitude of this handsome result. David Platt (2), Darren Anderton, Peter Beardsley and Alan Shearer filled their scoring boots against opponents who had qualified for the World Cup without losing a game, but the story behind the bursting of the Greek bubble will have given the new coach greatest satisfaction.

The well-travelled Alketas Panagulias and his players were nonplussed by England's tactical disposition, and were left with three defenders marking Shearer, to the inevitable profit of others. England too clever and sophisticated for the Continentals? Progress, indeed.

The pity was that there were only 23,659 present to see it. Weather that was anything but Greek to the visitors, and end-of- season lassitude made it all very different from the Denmark match, which saw the old ground full for Venables' opening night.

The onus was always going to be on England to make a game of it, but a team featuring five changes took 20 minutes to achieve a measure of cohesion. Once they found it, there could be only one outcome.

Fortunately, the Greeks came bearing gifts. The first goal was a present from their second-string goalkeeper, Christos Karkamanis, who allowed a routine cross from Graeme Le Saux to escape his grasp, leaving Anderton to open his international account with a tap-in.

The score, after 23 minutes, came as something of a relief, the Greeks having assembled the more assertive start. Traditionalists were still coming to terms with the sight of England decked out in Heart of Midlothian maroon when Greece threatened to increase domestic discomfiture with three half-chances in the first six minutes.

Tony Adams, moving to meet a right-wing cross from Minas Hantzidis, slipped on the treacherous turf and was happy to scramble the ball away. More disturbingly, Arsenal's central defenders were again found wanting when Panayiotis Tsalouhidis was allowed a free header at Stratos Apostolakis' lofted, long ball. To England's relief, Tim Flowers made a comfortable save.

Busily persistent, the Greeks were quickly back again for Nikos Tsiantakis to go uncomfortably close from 30 yards.

In the early stages, England had to work unexpectedly hard to make real progress, their first foray of any consequence coming when Platt wasted an inviting lay-off from Shearer by volleying weakly wide.

It was a start, nonetheless, and one England built on when Kevin Richardson's long ball saw Le Saux loose off a range-finding shot from 20 yards.

Anderton's goal then provided the catalyst, and an impressive reaction might have brought a second on the half-hour when a marvellously perceptive pass from Beardsley was met on the volley by Paul Merson, the ball flashing just wide.

Shearer tested a dodgy keeper's nerve with a thunderous shot, and England were up and running.

England's grip became unshakeable after 37 minutes, when Rob Jones won possession and released Platt, who turned Tsalouhidis before cutting the ball back from the byeline for Beardsley to touch in his ninth international goal and his first since October 1990.

It would have been three within a minute but for a double save from Karkamanis, at the expense of Platt and Shearer.

The reprieve, though, was strictly temporary. Two minutes of the first half remained when Shearer, in rampaging pursuit of Beardsley's bisecting pass, was tripped a yard inside the penalty area by Tsalouhidis. Platt was coolness personified from 12 yards, a la Cantona, and the Greeks were deep in the brown stuff.

The fourth goal arrived after 54 minutes when Karkamanis charged out to meet Anderton's shot, but was stranded when Shearer lifted the ball to the far post for Platt to score with a looping header from five yards. 'You're so bad it's unbelievable,' chorused the England quorum, to which the Greeks offered the succinct reply 'USA'.

Good luck to them - they are going to need it. One of these two teams could do very well in the World Cup. If only they were going.

Well before the end it was party time, with Matthew Le Tissier and Ian Wright getting in on the act as substitutes. Shearer saluted the appearance of Le Tissier, his one-time Southampton team-mate, by scoring the fifth after 65 minutes, when he skinned Kyriakos Karataidis on the edge of the area before shooting in low, right to left, through the goalkeeper's ineffective dive.

Easy, easy, as they say in the cheap seats. Bring on the Norwegians. There is a score to settle.

ENGLAND (4-3-2-1): Flowers (Blackburn); Jones (Liverpool), Bould (Arsenal), Adams (Arsenal), Le Saux (Blackburn); Anderton (Tottenham), Richardson (Aston Villa), Merson (Arsenal); Platt (Sampdoria), Beardsley (Newcastle); Shearer (Blackburn). Substitutes: Le Tissier (Southampton) for Anderton (63); Wright (Arsenal) for Beardsley (70); Pearce (Nottingham Forest) for Jones (82).

GREECE (4-1-3-1-1): Karkamanis (Aris Salonika); Apostolakis (Panathinaikos), Kalitzakis (Panathinaikos), Kolitsidakis (Apollon), Karayannis (AEK); Tsalouhidis (Olympiakos); Hantzidis (Olympiakos), Nioplias (Panathinaikos), Kofidis (Aris Salonika); Tsiantakis (Olympiakos); Mahlas (OFI Crete). Substitutes: Karataidis (Olympiakos) for Kolitsidakis (h/t); Mitropoulos (AEK) for Hantzidis (h/t); Saravakos (Panathinaikos) for Mahlas (h/t); Kostis (Aris Salonika) for Kofidis (70).

Referee: J McCluskey (Scotland).

(Photograph omitted)