Terry celebrates birth of twins by scoring his first goal.

Blackleaf · Terry celebrates birth of twins by scoring his first goal.

John Terry last night celebrate the birth of his twins by scoring his first ever goal for England.

Theo Walcott came on in the 2nd half and made history by becoming the youngest ever player to play for England. He broke Rooney's record. In 2003, Rooney was 17 years and 111 days when he made his England debut against Australia. Last night, Walcott was 17 years and 75 days, and he'll be the youngest player to play in this year's World Cup.

England play one more game, against Jamaica, on Saturday before they fly to Germany for the World Cup on Monday. Eriksson has chosen to play Jamaica, a similar team to Trinidad and Tobago, to give England some idea of what it'll be like to play Trinidad and Tobago at the World Cup.

31 May 2006

NAPPY ENDING FOR ENGLAND

New Dad Terry & Co inspire England to morale-boosting win after shaky start
By John Cross

Old Trafford

......England 3-1 Hungary
Gerrard 47............Dardai 55
Terry 51
Crouch 84

JOHN TERRY last night toasted the birth of his twins by scoring his first goal for England to put Sven Goran Eriksson on the winning path to the World Cup.

Chelsea captain Terry, whose partner Toni Poole gave birth to a boy Georgie John and girl Summer Rose a fortnight ago, headed home to put England on course for a morale-boosting victory against Hungary.

Terry marked his goal with Brazilian Romario's baby-rocking celebration and said: "I have had it in my mind ever since they were born to celebrate like that and it was a perfect way to do it tonight. You could say that I am over the moon."

England boss Eriksson was delighted with his team's second-half display as they rattled in goals from Terry, 26-year-old birthday boy Steven Gerrard and supersub Peter Crouch.

It made up for a disappointing first half with Frank Lampard missing a penalty. Theo Walcott came on as a second-half substitute to become England's youngest ever player, aged 17 years and 75 days.

Eriksson said: "Overall it was a good result, nice goals from us and I think the positives are much more than the negatives for me. "I now know my starting line-up which is important. That is clear to me even though I will not discuss it with anyone but my coaches."

Eriksson was defensive of his tactical experiments last night in which he used Gerrard to support lone striker Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher as a holding midfielder.

The England boss was not concerned about Michael Owen's lack of sharpness, playing just 24 hours after a scan on a thigh injury.

He said: "I'm not worried about Michael Owen. I've known him for five years and I have no worries about him at all. When it's the World Cup the music is different for Michael Owen."

Eriksson took off Gary Neville - as a precaution for a slight hamstring strain - and brought on Owen Hargreaves, and England only hit top gear after he made the changes at half time.

"Jamie Carragher and Owen Hargreaves did very well, both of them. We have options and all of them are different," he added.

"Steven Gerrard was excellent. Wherever I put Steven Gerrard he is excellent - maybe he wouldn't be in goal, but everywhere else! Steven Gerrard is a complete player."

Skipper David Beckham, whose crosses created the first two England goals, said: "I felt good. That's my job to set goals up and I was lucky to have a few chances. We finished them off well."

Wayne Rooney will travel with the squad to Germany on Monday but return 48 hours later for a decisive scan on his broken metatarsal.

mirror.co.uk

* Meanwhile, Germany showed everybody why they are not the team that they used to be and why they will not win the World Cup by managing only a 2-2 draw at home against Japan last night.

They'll have to pray that they don't meet England in the Last 16 of the World Cup.