England ease to win

The Aston Villa midfielder scored his first goal for his country - eight years after his debut - and then was handed the captain's armband by Capello for the second half after David Beckham had been substituted.

Two goals from Jermain Defoe ensured the England players will head for their summer holidays in a positive frame of mind and the report on the first six months of Capello's reign should read "shows promise but still room for improvement".

The 23,000 capacity Hasely Crawford Stadium was almost full two hours before the kick-off despite England being without seven of the Manchester United and Chelsea players who had competed in the Champions League final.

They saw Beckham lead England out for for the 59th time - nearly two years after the last occasion in the 2006 World Cup.

The hosts, containing five English-based players in their side, were soon under the cosh and suffered an injury setback after only eight minutes.

Rio Ferdinand's hesitation forced David James to come racing out of his area and he collided with Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones who was carried off on a stretcher with a leg injury and replaced by Darryl Roberts.

Stuart Downing's ball picked out the overlapping run of Wayne Bridge and his first time cross was volleyed in at close range by Barry for his first goal for his country.

Then a pass from Downing was run onto by Defoe, who had plenty of time to drill a low shot across Clayton Ince into the corner of the net.

And after 49 minutes Defoe struck for the second time after Peter Crouch had headed a cross from David Bentley into his path.