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England: David Beckham backs record-breaking Rooney: Don’t stop!

England boss Sam Allardyce made the day of a Slovakian kitman following England’s last-gasp World Cup qualifying victory – by leaving him Raheem Sterling’s jersey and Wayne Rooney’s captain’s armband. No creativity from open play.

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The England manager cut through the renewed debate over whether Rooney warranted a place in his starting line-up to throw his support behind him, saying he wanted to “use his experience to its maximum”. Yes, sometimes he played a little deep, but I can’t stop Wayne if he thinks that’s the right position to play, to go a little deep. That was maybe sub-conscious, players thinking: ‘I don’t want to be the one who gives that ball away.’ I could see that: ‘What if I make that pass?

Margetson, now 44, played 48 times for Town between 1999 and 2002 and he worked with Allardyce at West Ham.

After scoring a late victor in England’s 1-0 victory over Slovakia on Sunday evening, Adam Lallana described it as a “dream” goal. Company vehicle, free match tickets and bi-monthly weekend breaks to Eastern Europe?

However, Slovakia were reduced to 10 men when former Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel stamped on Harry Kane but his former teammate stole the show in injury time as it ended 1-0.

After years of broken dreams and disappointment from our global footballers – most recently in their unenthusiastic efforts at Euro 2016 – fans are unimpressed.

“He says, “You can play me anywhere you want me to play and I will try and play there”.

“I knew there were 20 minutes left [when I hit the post], we had fresh legs on the pitch, it was tough conditions, it was warm and I thought we were very patient”. He’s won everything at Manchester United, more or less, and at Champions League and domestic level. It’s not a big thing and I think there’s a big over-reaction to it.

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Eric Dier, meanwhile, was pleased to start life under Allardyce with a win but said there was still plenty of work to do to heal the scars of a summer of hurt at the European Championship.

England goalkeeper Joe Hart with goalkeeper coach Martyn Margetson in Slovakia