On target: Young drilled his effort past the Wales goalkeeper following good work from Stewart Downing

Both impressed, Young crowning a strong contribution with his third goal in six games and Downing, as the creator of the goal, providing a strong challenge to the injured Theo Walcott for that role on the right.

Elsewhere, though, England fell well short of the standards they achieved in Bulgaria on Friday night. They lacked that urgency, that fluency, that zip. Capello blamed a loss of confidence that he seems to think is still brought on by this marvellous stadium. Far from inspiring England's players, it seems to frighten them in a way that an old concrete bowl in eastern Europe apparently doesn't.

On this occasion, however, there was another problem. Capello changed his formation pretty much as he said he would, switching to a 4-3-3 formation in anticipation of the defensive tactics teams tend to employ when they come to Wembley.

But in playing Wayne Rooney on his own, with Downing out wide to his right and Young out wide to his left, Capello encountered a problem.

The Welsh did a number on England's best player, the presence of Andrew Crofts in front of Speed's back four leaving Rooney with only limited space in which to operate. As a result Rooney became isolated and ineffective, and when Rooney is ineffective England tend to suffer as a consequence.

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