Group E - England 5 Andorra 0: A footballer who is initially famous for his height probably gets used to a life of extremes. It would have been no surprise for Peter Crouch to find himself as a long shot among all the young prospects who dreamed of an international career.
Nowadays, however, he has a record with England that is delightfully improbable, having accumulated 10 goals in 2006.
That scoring streak has so far brought him more affection than adulation since the opposition have been hapless on several occasions. He struck twice against Andorra on Saturday, but it would be an insult to England to call the 5-0 win a training session. When Steve McClaren's squad practise, it is much more competitive than that.
Nonetheless, Crouch is pressing his claim to stay in the line-up even when Wayne Rooney returns for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Macedonia at Old Trafford next month, with the suspension he picked up for the red card against Portugal in Gelsenkirchen finally complete. The Liverpool striker will face those same adversaries in Skopje on Wednesday as England's campaign begins in earnest.
Macedonia are now managed by Srecko Katanec, who directed Slovenia to the finals of both Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup. His formula is intact and the team, who began Group E with a 1-0 win in Estonia, are starting to look well drilled. Crouch has amassed many goals but he needs a few more that resonate with the public and with McClaren.
Only the header that broke the galling deadlock with Trinidad & Tobago at the World Cup has had that sort of impact. He is under threat, too, from Jermain Defoe, who scored twice on Saturday. They were the type of strikes to gladden those who worried about a forward without an international goal for two years.
Defoe made a textbook run to the near post and met Steven Gerrard's cross with a first-time finish to put his team 3-0 up. The fourth goal also belonged to him as he controlled a header from Phil Neville and found the net. Nonetheless, there are more reservations about him than there are about Crouch. He is far from being a mainstay at Spurs.
Defoe has the pace to go beyond a defence and so echo the style of Rooney's normal partner, the currently injured Michael Owen. That trait, all the same, does not trump Crouch's overall contribution. McClaren has enlightening statistics about the selfless work of the attacker in every match.
"He runs about 13k," said the England manager. "The average for a midfielder is about 12k. I've seen Crouch do 14k, or just over that. He runs the most of anybody in our team. You'd think it would be a midfield player but it's Peter Crouch. For a striker that's a phenomenal amount of work he's getting through."
Crouch is awash with self-belief at present and that enhances his alertness. The opener against Andorra in the fifth minute was taken with a poacher's decisiveness as he snapped a low shot into the corner of the net just when it seemed the ball was about to run loose after a neat link-up between Defoe and Ashley Cole.
The last of England's goals belonged to him as well, when he capitalised on the splendid run and cross by the Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon to ping a header into the top corner of the net as England assumed a 3-5-2 formation.
McClaren promises to experiment with that system again, although the real question is how resilient it can be defensively unless full-backs are used on the wings.
Although the Gerrard volley for England's second goal was majestic, a well-schooled left-back would never have let Cole's cross drop over his head as Javier Sanchez did.
Macedonia will be far more competitive and England will be pleased if Rio Ferdinand, who had a badly bruised toe, can train properly this morning. McClaren is hopeful the centre-back will do so and then fly out with the rest of the squad.
Guardian Service
