Capello applauds his tired stars as they shine in the sun

Fabio Capello insisted today that his new England are on course to restore the nation's football credibility and secure a place at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

The 3-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago was the latest exercise in convincing England's serial under-achievers that they are good enough to redeem themselves after failing to qualify for Euro 2008.

Capello, who will travel to Austria and Switzerland as a spectator, will use the European Championships as a yardstick to measure the current status of the squad he inherited from Steve McClaren six months ago.

Wins against Switzerland, USA, Trinidad and a sound performance in losing 1-0 in France, have convinced the Italian coach that his management style is making a difference.

"In my opinion we've improved in each of the four games," he said. "I'm very pleased with the progress we are making. What is most important is that with every game I know the players better and they know me better.

"I thought we played well [against Trinidad] and all the players showed a good attitude and good concentration. We scored two goals quickly and we followed that up by showing good concentration, which was very satisfying.

"Playing here in very warm weather has been a particularly good exercise because we learned the value of keeping possession. We had a lot of chances to score goals but Trinidad and Tobago had only one chance. This is very good for me. My players did everything I asked of them.

"I know it's not easy at this stage, the finish of a long season, to play away but the attitude of the players was very encouraging. I have learned a lot about them. They have been very good in training. I saw a lot of positive things and I hope we'll be even better in the qualifiers."

To be truthful, it's difficult to draw hard and fast conclusions about England's progress from their last two games. Both opponents were of limited ambition and talent and Trinidad lost their main striker, Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones, after just six minutes last night.

England were so superior they could have scored five or six goals during a lively contest which saw a steel band, a calypso atmosphere and an enthralled crowd generate a real Caribbean carnival mood.

A wall-to-wall crowd squeezed into the Hasely Crawford nearly two hours before kick-off and the welcome they gave David Beckham was only bettered by their greeting of local hero Dwight Yorke.

Trinidad and Tobago are preparing for their own World Cup qualifying campaign and the fact that they secured a major nation like England to help them clearly counts for a lot in these parts.

The Football Association also hope, of course, that gratitude will help them when the votes are cast to decide the host nation for the 2018 World Cup.

More immediately, Capello's interest is focused on qualifying for 2010 and, as he's about to discover, that could be tougher than he imagines.

He should draw some encouragement, though, from the development of his team. He may not have many players to choose from but he seems happy enough with those he has worked with in the last few months.

If he knows his best line-up he isn't saying. "What I do know is that I have 16 who can play at a high level," he added. "I can make changes as and when necessary."

My guess is that only four or five of that 16 were on duty last night - David James, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry and, yes, David Beckham.

Others, like Dean Ashton, were given a chance here in the Caribbean and failed to take it. Capello wanted to see what he could do and when Beckham delivered the perfect cross to the back post the unmarked West Ham striker squandered a wonderful opportunity, casually lifting his shot over the bar.

He could, of course, get another chance like Jermain Defoe.

Wasteful against the USA, the absence of players like Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen gave Defoe a second chance last night. This time he responded with the kind of predatory instincts that we are used to seeing from him in the Premier League.

His exquisite control of Stewart Downing's pass allowed him to shoot home in the 15th minute and, just after the interval, he scored from Peter Crouch's knockdown. Barry, who opened the scoring in the 12th minute with his first England goal eight years after his debut, looked outstanding alongside Gerrard. With Frank Lampard and Owen Hargreaves at home there is clearly going to be a fight for midfield places next season.

The other pluses for Capello were Downing, David Bentley and Jonathan Woodgate and although Arsenal's Theo Walcott had only 20 minutes as a substitute, he once again revealed his fantastic pace and very nearly scored three minutes from time.

What we can say as England prepare for a demeaning spectator role at European football's top table, is that Capello has at the very least restored the feel good factor.

Another win on a balmy Caribbean evening was encouraging - but we should remember that the losers were not Croatia, Russia or even Israel.