Hart, Kyle Walker, Cahill, Jagielka, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Wilshire, Walcott, Welbeck, Lambert

England: Hart, Walker, Cole (Baines 45), Cahill, Jagielka, Gerrard, Walcott, Lampard, Wilshere (Barkley 59), Welbeck, Lambert (Milner 70) Subs not used: Ruddy, Forster, Smalling, Carrick, Cleverley, Young, Sterling, Townsend, Defoe Goals: Gerrard 12, Lambert 26, Welbeck 45, 50 Booked: Welbeck. Moldova: Namasco, Armas, Golovatenco, Epureanu, Bulgaru (Suvorov 57), Bordiyan, Ionita (Onica 19), Antoniuc, Dedov, Gheorghiev (Pascenco 84), Sidorenco Subs not used: Pascenco, Cebanu, Racu, Boestean, Erhan, Cebotaru, Gheorghe Andronic, Doros, Grosu Referee: Ivan Kruzliak (Slovakia). Attendance: 61,607 England 4 Moldova 0: The referee blew and Danny Welbeck shot. Maybe. Perhaps Welbeck shot and the referee blew. There really wasn’t a lot in it. Certainly not so much that it was worth making a crisis out of this tiny drama. Ivan Kruzliak did, though. The Slovakian official, perceiving some non-existent slight, produced a yellow card. He booked Welbeck, supposedly for continuing to play, contrary to his instructions. And in doing so he ruined what was an otherwise positive night for England. For Welbeck will now miss Tuesday’s match with Ukraine, an absence more significant than his two goals – scored when the match was already as good as won – or his impressively fresh understanding with forward partner Rickie Lambert That should have been the story of the match. Welbeck and Lambert, an unlikely little dream team, combining beautifully twice to prove that hope can emerge from the unlikeliest quarters in international football. Were they flattered by woeful opposition, or can they carry this form through to a sterner test in Kiev on Tuesday night? We will never know. The useless Kruzliak merely ensured England travel east on Monday with a forward line pared to the bone. The one stroke of luck is that events in Warsaw, where Poland drew 1-1 with Montenegro, means defeat is no longer a Doomsday scenario that would leave England in fear of not even making a World Cup qualifying play-off place. As it stands, a draw would now be a reasonable result, and a win exceptional. In all likelihood, the victor in Kiev will win Group H. The permutations beyond this are too varied to detail – but the most unnerving result for Hodgson last night would have been a Montenegrin win against Poland, and it did not materialise. What did materialise, however, is the type of migraine that tends to affect England managers around the time of crucial matches. The sure sign that Hodgson will spend the next 72 hours reaching regularly for the Panadol came when he removed the excellent Lambert for James Milner after 70 minutes. The decision brought a negative response from the Wembley crowd but the need to protect Lambert was imperative. Welbeck is suspended, Wayne Rooney is injured, Andy Carroll is not yet fit, Daniel Sturridge is clearly struggling with a calf strain, and Jermain Defoe has been lightly raced by Tottenham Hotspur this season, to say the least. This leaves Lambert as No 1 in a field of, well, one for Ukraine – unless Hodgson has designs on the radical, like a forward berth for Theo Walcott. Such a dilemma will be offered as further evidence of the shortage of options for an England manager these days – although, realistically, few countries in Europe could afford to lose four or five strikers without appearing threadbare. To be deprived of Welbeck by such a ridiculous decision, however, is what angered Hodgson. The gap between the whistle and the shot, if one existed at all, was so small it is impossible to see how the player could have stopped in time. There was no insolence or dissent in his action – indeed it is hard to see how any referee of basic competence could have construed it this way. Hodgson is usually a mild presence on the touchline, but here he badgered both linesman and fourth official. To no avail, obviously. The damage was done. How much, of course, we cannot yet know. The disappointment is that, otherwise, the interplay between Lambert and Welbeck would have been the highlight of the night. No matter the opposition, it was genuinely impressive. Lambert played two excellent passes to set up Welbeck’s goals – as well as scoring one himself – and in doing so made a strong case for inclusion even when the squad is at full strength. It would be patronising in the extreme to say that Lambert’s influence surprised – Southampton fans have been declaring his talent for years – but there is a temptation to view every striker from beyond the elite as another Kevin Davies, and perhaps Lambert has suffered from inconsiderate presumptions up until now. Not any more. His pass for Welbeck’s second was perfectly weighted, and while the first may have been a ball over the top, had it come from a player of greater reputation it would have been hailed as a pass of eye-catching sophistication. Either way, Lambert seemed to respond to Welbeck much as he does to Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez and that was a good thing. The game was comfortably won when Welbeck scored his two, England already two goals ahead and Moldova as limply unambitious as any visitors to Wembley in recent years, yet he took both goals well, particularly as he was no doubt still smarting from the referee’s ham-fisted intervention. It was the final attack before half-time when Lambert, from a deep position, played a fine ball over the top which Welbeck anticipated, outpacing the Moldovan back line and taking it smoothly around goalkeeper Stanislav Namasco before finishing into an empty net. It was exactly the sort of smart thinking England will need in Kiev, replicated five minutes into the second-half by the same players. Here was Lambert again, picking up the ball on the left and putting in Welbeck with a perfect pass, the Manchester United man drawing Namasco and lifting the ball over him for an exquisite finish. He now has eight goals in 18 England appearances. There had been a steady drizzle of goals up to that point, as England’s superiority was emphatically confirmed. The first came after just 12 minutes. Pressure on the left flank panicked Vitalie Bordian, forcing him into a tackle that succeeded only in helping the ball down the line, almost becoming a forward pass for England. Welbeck latched on to the loose ball and slipped it inside to Frank Lampard. He fed it along the advancing line to Steven Gerrard, and his shot, low from just outside the penalty, beat Namasco at the near post. There were 26 minutes gone when a period of sustained pressure ended with the goal that concluded the game as a contest. There had been several assaults on the Moldovan penalty area before a poor clearance ended with a shot from Theo Walcott that Namasco parried but only to the onrushing Lambert, who headed the ball into an empty net, his second in as many international starts. There were varied opportunities to score a fifth – the most obvious being a Gerrard free-kick in second-half stoppage time, which fell to the unmarked Milner at the far post, only for the substitute to miss the target, horribly. Hodgson’s reaction at the end told its own story. He was more animated about Welbeck’s booking than his goals. Without doubt he would have traded both strikes for a rescinded yellow card. Sadly, football doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t strike bargains: and the same is likely to be true of Ukraine on Tuesday. England are in for a tough night.

Goal Scorers for England....Steven Gerrard, Rickie Lambert and Danny Welbeck (2)