STEVEN Gerrard revelled in his role of support striker as England got their World Cup preparations off to an impressive start with a 3-1 win over Hungary.
But the Liverpool captain, celebrating his 26th birthday, admitted that he cannot match Wayne Rooney's brilliance in that position.
England had been below par during the first half at Old Trafford with their new-look 4-1-4-1 formation although Frank Lampard had a penalty saved by Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly.
Matters improved after the interval with Gerrard and John Terry scoring in quick succession from David Beckham free-kicks.
But Hungarian skipper Pal Dardai pulled one back from long range and it needed a fine save from Paul Robinson to deny Laszlo Eger before Peter Crouch settled the issue with six minutes remaining.
Gerrard said: "There was a lot of pressure on me trying to play where Wayne plays. I'm never going to be as good as Wayne Rooney in there but I enjoyed it.
"The formation suits us, Frank is superb breaking from midfield and the manager has told us we can interchange. I thought we created a lot of problems for Hungary."
Convincing
He added: "The most important thing was we won and we won convincingly. We could have been two or three up at half-time but we took our chances in the second half.
"I enjoy playing anywhere. The manager asked me to play just behind Michael, to try to get the ball and make things happen."
Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was satisfied with the warm-up match and praised his side's patience.
"They (Hungary) were even better than I thought, a good side and technically very good. They scored a fantastic goal and it was a very good test," he said.
"I'm rather happy with it and I'm sure we'll be playing even better at the World Cup.
"We've been training a lot, we had a very good intensive session yesterday and we trained this morning as well.
"When you meet a team defending with nine men behind the ball, if you can't win the ball and play it forward very quickly it's very difficult because you don't find space.
"You must have patience. I think we had that and started the second half very well with two set-pieces to go 2-0 up."
What is your verdict on the performance? Have your say.
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Showing comments 1 to 4 and replies | View All
Mark, South Manchester (31/05/2006 at 12:33)
But now, I absolutely hate the English football team! The whole media frenzy and bad atmosphere they create - makes me utterly despise them. [It's the same thing with all that "Henmania" rubbish too.] So here's hoping England get knocked out early, the fans riot and we get banned for 10 years!!
Roy Gilberts, Padiham, UK (31/05/2006 at 12:38)
tom, canada (02/06/2006 at 04:24)
Tommy, Tampa (02/06/2006 at 14:54)