Roy Hodgson has backed Jack Wilshere to be an England star for many years to come after he scored a stunning double in Sunday's 3-2 win over Slovenia.
It took five years for Wilshere to break his scoring drought with England, but on the evidence of his latest performance it was worth the wait.
Wilshere’s first, which came after Milivoje Novakovic had put Slovenia ahead, was a fierce arrow into the far corner after a poor clearance.
The second was the pick of the pair. Jordan Henderson played the ball into Adam Lallana, who flicked the ball into Wilshere’s path and he let fly with a fierce drive into the top right-hand corner.
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Wilshere’s season has, yet again, been marred by injury and off-the-field controversy, but Hodgson hopes he will enjoy a better campaign next year, which will aid England’s Euro 2016 hopes no end.
“I’m very happy with Jack and the goals he’s scored,” the England manager said.
“In particular, I am happy with his performance. In the second half he was controlling that midfield, it was a performance we’ve seen from him for a while now.
“If we can keep him fit and he can get plenty of Premier League matches and international matches, at his young age we think we’ve got a good player going forward.”
Although Wilshere’s goals were the highlight of an exciting England performance, Wayne Rooney grabbed the headlines after he scored the winner which ensured England ended the season unbeaten for the first time in 24 years.
Nejc Pecnik stepped off the bench to score what he thought was an equaliser six minutes from time, but just two minutes later, shortly after receiving an elbow in the face from Bostjan Cesar, Rooney kept his nerve to capitalise on a mistimed tackle from Bojan Jokic and slide the ball past Samir Handanovic.
The goal put Rooney level with Gary Lineker and just one goal shy of Bobby Charlton’s 49-goal record and his manager could not have been happier for him after the final whistle.
“Wayne Rooney’s performance says a lot of things about him as a man,” Hodgson said of his captain.
“Just before he took that chance he took a nasty blow from an elbow, which could have decked many a player and led to him losing his discipline. It didn’t and he got up.
“He had one or two chances that had gone begging, but when the ball fell to him he still stuck it away with aplomb.
“We can rely on that man. I’d have liked him to get a hat-trick today so all the talk of the record would be finished, but he has plenty of time.”
Reflecting on going the season unbeaten, Hodgson said: “It’s a good achievement. That’s not been done for over 20 years.
“The players deserve some credit for that.”
Euro 2016 qualifying results from Sunday
Group C
At Lviv, Ukraine
Ukraine 3 (Kravets 49’, Garmash 57’, Konoplyanka 87’) Luxembourg 0
At Barysaw, Belarus
Belarus 0 Spain 1 (Silva 45’)
At Zilina, Slovakia
Slovakia 2 (Salata 8’, Hamsik 38’) Macedonia 1 (Ademi 69’)
Group E
At Tallinn
Estonia 2 (Zenjov 35’, 63’) San Marino 0
At Ljubljana
Slovenia 2 (Novakovic 37, Pecnik 84) England 3 (Wilshere 57, 73, Rooney 86)
At Vilnius
Lithuania 1 (Cernych 64’) Switzerland 2 (Drmic 69’, Shaqiri 84’)
Group G
At Vaduz
Liechtenstein 1 (Wieser 21’) Moldova 1 (Boghiu 44’)
At Moscow
Russia 0 Austria 1 (Janko 33’)
At Solna, Sweden
Sweden 3 (Berg 38’, Ibrahimovic 40’, 44’) Montenegro 1 (Damjanovic 64-pen’)
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