England 3 Slovenia 1: Quarterback Rooney to the rescue as fans short-changed by gridiron policy

A goal down to Slovenia just before the hour mark, Roy Hodgson’s men looked all at sea on a Wembley pitch that still carried the scars of the previous week’s NFL game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Dallas Cowboys.

Then, though, Wayne Rooney underlined why he is every bit as important to England as a quarter-back with a deadly accurate arm is in gridiron by tempting a rash challenge out of a previously resolute Slovenian defence.

A penalty was the inevitable result and Rooney did the rest from the spot to begin a recovery job that Danny Welbeck completed with his own double.

It meant blushes were spared for all but the Football Association bean-counters who thought it perfectly okay to permit an American invasion of the national stadium just six days before an important Euro 2016 qualifier.

Not only did this mean the yardage line from the Stateside game was visible on the turf along with the Jaguars club badge, but the centre of the field had started to churn up during the warm-up.

For a stadium that cost the best part of £1bn and with ticket prices for England’s final home game of 2014 peaking at £65, that just is not good enough as it means the public is being short-changed.

That much was certainly true on Saturday evening until Jordan Henderson headed into his own goal on 58 minutes to spark into life a match that, even by England’s standards at Wembley under Hodgson, had been dire.

The pitch had played its part. There is no getting away from that. But England’s shoddy performance for the best part of an hour can not be put down in its entirety to a surface that had more bobbles than a cheap jumper bought from a dodgy London market stall.

Slow, laborious and utterly predictable during a truly awful first half, the hosts were everything a Slovenian side that had clearly come for a point could have wished to face.

Starting with a diamond formation that put all the emphasis on the full-backs to provide width, England failed miserably to produce the spark needed to unlock dogged opponents.

Instead, play became bogged down in central midfield – which just happened to be the area that had taken such a fearsome pounding in the rain during the previous week’s NFL game.

It said everything about the lack of fluidity from an England perspective in those opening 45 minutes that the only save of note came via a back pass by Jasmin Kurtic that, but for the quick reactions of goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, would have crept inside his post.

Otherwise, all Hodgson’s side could muster in a woeful first half were efforts from distance by Raheem Sterling, Rooney and Welbeck that would not have found the net had Handanovic been guarding three sets of goalposts.

Matters had to improve after the break and Hodgson’s response on the restart was to switch formation as Sterling was, at last, pushed out wide.

The move made a difference straight away, even if it did take Slovenia going ahead to truly spark England into life.

Henderson was the unfortunate man to end a 513-minute shutout of the opposition, the Liverpool midfielder turning the ball past a helpless Joe Hart as he tried to clear a menacing free-kick from Andraz Kirm.

As the 2,000 or so Slovenian fans celebrated an unlikely goal, the groans all around the rest of Wembley began in earnest.

The value, therefore, of Rooney winning a penalty for England just 75 seconds later cannot over-stated. He did it well, too, with a twisting and turning run that saw two defenders left bamboozled before Bostjan Cesar, making a record-breaking 81st appearance for the still fledgling nation, unwittingly clipped the striker’s heel while trying to pull off a saving tackle.

Rooney fell straight to the ground and referee Olegario Benquerenca had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Forty or so seconds later – and after the inevitable protests had died down – Rooney thrashed a penalty so ferocious that Handanovic could not keep it out despite getting a hand to the ball.

It was the 44th international goal by the Liverpudlian on his 100th appearance, meaning he is now level with Jimmy Greaves in the all-time list of England goalscorers.

While sporting the Three Lions, he has scored far more important goals. In terms of Saturday’s game, however, Rooney’s spot-kick proved the turning point in deciding the destiny of the three points.

England, by now exuding much more confidence on the ball, poured forward in the final half-hour and their reward came via two strikes from Welbeck.

The first, on 66 minutes, had a degree of good fortune with the Arsenal striker scuffing a shot that bounced into the turf before evading both Handanovic and a Slovenian defender on the line.

His second six minutes later, however, was a much more impressive affair as Welbeck exchanged passes with Sterling on the edge of the area before finishing with aplomb.

The game was as good as over, prompting a good number of the 82,305 crowd to head out into the London night in the hope of beating the traffic.

It meant many missed Welbeck pull off another deft one-two before hitting a shot that Slovenia did well to block to prevent the striker grabbing the match ball.

Not that it mattered too much, as England continued their procession towards qualifying as winners of what has to be one of the weaker groups.

Next up are Lithuania at home in March, when at least the American Football season will be long since over and the Wembley pitch, hopefully, back to a standard more befitting the national stadium.