Cole lights up Eriksson's happy fiftieth

England 4 - Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland were no more able to make a case yesterday for reviving the Home International Championship than Wales had done on the same ground when losing just as feebly, if less heavily, last October. Holding out with massed defence throughout the first half, they conceded four goals and the match in the next 17 minutes as England found belated reward for their often accomplished approach play and further strengthened their prospects of being at the World Cup finals next year.

Another victory over Azerbaijan in Newcastle on Wednesday will make five in a row in Group Six since the opening draw against Austria, though Poland stubbornly refuse to give up the chase and, with an extra game to play in June, ought to be group leaders over the summer.

But Sven Goran Eriksson, under pressure to achieve just such a result in his 50th match after grim performances in friendlies against Spain and Holland, was able to celebrate his half-century with bat and head held high. As a welcome additional bonus, he has at last found in the new, improved Joe Cole a solution to the perennial problem of who should play on the left of midfield. Having publicly congratulated Cole, England's head coach should do the same to Jose Mourinho for instilling the discipline previously lacking in the young maverick.

With his Chelsea clubmate Frank Lampard surging forward to good effect, and Wayne Rooney dropping off to join in the link-up play, it hardly mattered that Steven Gerrard was quieter than normal in his more withdrawn role. The contribution of David Beckham, the fourth midfielder, was more fitful, and his back problem might offer an opportunity on home ground in midweek to Kieron Dyer, who replaced the captain late in the game to positive effect, immediately setting up two of England's countless scoring opportunities.

Eriksson was pleased that his team kept their heads and their positions despite not scoring in a one-sided first half. "Overall a good three points and a very, very good performance for 90 minutes," he concluded. Lawrie Sanchez identified a crucial problem for Northern Ireland in that long sequences without scoring or winning before he took over 15 months ago mean heads go down as soon as they concede a goal. "It's something we have to address," he said. "It's a bit like a boxer. At 1-0 we're winded, but certainly not out. One goal doesn't mean it's the end of the world. But we left with the score that a lot of people probably predicted. Fortunately I signed my [new] contract yesterday, so I don't need a vote of confidence at the moment."

He fielded a single striker, David Healy, one of the seven Championship representatives in a side that for all Sanchez's improvements had just lost at home to Canada and have still not won a competitive game since beating Malta in October 2001. Healy, once of Manchester United, was of course the hero who ended the team's 13-match drought without a goal by scoring in the first match under Sanchez, a 4-1 defeat by Norway.

There was little opportunity for him to achieve genuinely iconic status by becoming the first of his country's footballers to score a goal against England since Terry Cochrane a quarter of a century ago. The sum of the visitors' attacking in the first half was a wild drive into the Stretford End by Bristol City's Tommy Doherty after Stuart Elliott had headed Keith Gillespie's cross down to him.

Predictably, the ball was more often to be found at the other end of the pitch, and might on several occasions have finished in Northern Ireland's net. There was a flurry of early corners, one of them headed narrowly over the bar by John Terry. Approaching the midway point of the half, the pressure on a hard-pressed defence intensified, with three chances in quick succession. First, Lampard sent Michael Owen clear of the labouring Aaron Hughes, Maik Taylor saving well on the edge of his six-yard area.

Two minutes later, after some improvisation by Lampard and Beckham, Owen fed Gary Neville for a cross that Rooney met with a clever, twisting header which defeated Taylor but rebounded off the far post. Then Rooney's fierce shot from 25 yards was pushed round for a corner. Beckham's curling free-kick from similar distance met the same fate, as did Lampard's low, angled drive with his left foot just before the interval.

Delighted to reach the security of the dressing room with their goal intact, Sanchez's men ruined all their dogged work by conceding three times within seven minutes of the resumption. All were avoidable, none more so than the first, in the 47th minute, when Plymouth Argyle's left-back Tony Capaldi lost possession with a careless square pass cut out by Joe Cole, who moved inside for a well-placed drive wide of Taylor.

Lampard was instrumental in the second goal, playing a one-two with Rooney as he drove into the penalty area; Owen took the ball almost off his foot to dink past the goalkeeper. It was his 29th international goal, one behind Nat Lofthouse, Tom Finney and Alan Shearer, and most of the stadium felt he had drawn level with them two minutes later. Rooney did superbly in fooling the big centre-half Colin Murdock, wriggling along the byline and feeding the ball to the near post, where Chris Baird, the visitors' right-back, had the final touch ahead of Owen.

Lampard then claimed the fourth as a reward for his typically well-hit 25- yarder, despite the heavy deflection of Murdock's head, and Dyer's first touch, coming in from the right, set him up for what should have been a fifth, the Chelsea man contriving to hit the bar from somewhere close to the penalty spot. Another useful incursion by Dyer gave Owen a chance, which he hooked over the bar.

For Northern Ireland's raucously loyal thousands, there was just a tame shot by Healy that gave Paul Robinson his first save of an undemanding afternoon. The cheers from the home sections of Old Trafford were ironic, then, at the final whistle, tumultuous.