England took a step closer to South Africa 2010 with a 4-0 demolition of Kazakhstan in Almaty on Saturday. The win came in handy and looked relatively easy despite the fact that the Three Lions were ragged in the first half.

World Cup qualification has been the main mantra of new boss Fabio Capello and England maintained their 100% record in this campaign under the wily Italian. However for the first 40 minutes, it looked like jet lag had caught up with the Englishmen as they struggled to create chances.

Sergey Ostapenko had an early chance for the home side, but John Terry blocked his shot. His header was then ruled offside after he had deposited it in the back of the net. Gareth Barry opened his account for England after he headed in Steven Gerrard's cross on 40 minutes to calm English nerves.

Capello appeared to breathe a sigh of relief at the sidelines after Emile Heskey scored his first England goal in seven years in the stoppage time of the first 45 minutes.

After the break, Kazakhstan were engaged in limiting the damage and that allowed Wayne Rooney some freedom upfront, which he took full advantage of in the 73rd minute to score in spectacular fashion.

Heskey was pulled back by Abdulin in the 78th minute and Frank Lampard scored the resulting penalty to give England another fine win. The win takes them to 18 points from 6 games and leaves England tantalizingly close to a World Cup berth.