England 5 San Marino 0: England forced to bide their time before breaking down worst team in the world

England's Danny Welbeck challenges for the ball with San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini at Wembley last night.

Wayne Rooney edged one goal closer to Sir Bobby Charlton’s record as England coasted past the clothes salesman, the factory worker and the bar owner from San Marino with a simple if not spectacular win at Wembley.

The 55,990 fans in attendance started to get anxious when England failed to open the scoring in the first 20 minutes, but head coach Roy Hodgson’s team finally broke the deadlock through Phil Jagielka’s third international goal.

England were sloppy and slow in attack at times in the first half, but Rooney managed to find the net just before the break with a well-taken penalty.

The strike moved the England captain on to 42 international goals – seven short of Charlton.

One can only imagine how many goals Rooney’s idol would have bagged in his pomp against this shoddy San Marino team, who fielded just one professional in their starting XI.

The small European principality put 10 men behind the ball when they were not in possession and they only managed one shot on target.

Danny Welbeck and Andros Townsend found the net in the second half and Alessandro Della Valle also scored an own goal to round off the win.

A 5-0 victory over the lowest-ranked international team in the world does not prove anything, but Hodgson will still be happy to make it two wins from two in the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

If England needed any proof they were up against the 208th-best side in the world, it came inside four minutes when Aldo Simoncini committed an error rarely even seen in Sunday League matches up and down the country.

The San Marino goalkeeper palmed the ball down with both hands and picked it up to give away a free-kick inside his own box.

Simoncini, clearly racked with nerves, punched away Rooney’s 10-yard set-piece.