Roy Hodgson praised Wayne Rooney’s strength of character after his captain retained his composure following a series of missed chances, and his discipline having been elbowed, to conjure the winner which hauled him level with Gary Lineker as England’s joint second-leading scorer.



Rooney, floored by Bostjan Cesar’s flailing arm moments earlier, pounced on Bojan Jokic’s mistake four minutes from time to slide his 48th goal for his country beyond Samir Handanovic and maintain England’s perfect record in Group E. The 29-year-old is one shy of Sir Bobby Charlton’s record, with San Marino awaiting in September when qualification can effectively be secured. His eight goals in 10 internationals have contributed heavily to the side’s unbeaten record this season.

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The Manchester United striker had missed a flurry of opportunities earlier in a frantic contest illuminated by Jack Wilshere’s first goals for the national side. “Wayne Rooney’s performance says a lot of things about him as a man,” said Hodgson. “Just before he took that chance he had taken a nasty blow from an elbow, which could have decked many a player and led to him losing his discipline. But it didn’t and he simply got up and played on.

“The fact one or two chances had gone begging earlier also didn’t worry him because, when the ball fell to him four minutes from the end, he still stuck it away with aplomb. We can rely on that man. I’d have liked him to get a hat-trick today so all the talk of the record would have been finished, but he has plenty of time on his side to achieve that still.”

Lineker was quick to congratulate Rooney, who now boasts 28 goals in qualification games for the World Cup or European Championships, on his achievement. “I’m pleased to be joined by Wayne Rooney on 48 goals,” he said. “It seemed, during a five-minute spell in the second half, it might not happen when he struck two over the bar, but Wayne’s been a consistently excellent player over the years.

“I’m sure he will go on and surpass the great Sir Bobby Charlton. He’s still only 29 and he’s a formidable talent and he has a fabulous goalscoring record, especially in qualifiers.”

Cesar was not cautioned for the elbow flung at the striker as the captains clashed inside the penalty area just after Slovenia’s equaliser, which had tied the game at 2-2. The pair had tangled once before, in a friendly at Wembley in 2009 when the England striker had won a penalty despite appearing to connect heavily with Cesar’s ankle. The Slovenian was booked and had subsequently spent a lengthy spell on the sidelines, describing the tackle as “stupid, stupid foul” at the time.“We thought it could have been a penalty,” said Hodgson of the incident in Ljubljana. “But the referee handled the game well. Slovenia are a strong, physical, aggressive team: Fabian Delph took an elbow to his jaw and Raheem Sterling a nasty kick at the end of the game as well. But the players showed their resilience. The team spirit is getting better all the time. They didn’t leave much on the field in terms of effort and determination.”

Jack Wilshere lets fly to score his second goal. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

While there was frustration at the nature of the first-half goal which meant England trailed at the break, stemming as it did from a Phil Jones throw-in deep in Slovenia’s half, Hodgson was hugely encouraged by the recovery mounted courtesy of Wilshere’s eye-catching brace. “His whole performance was quality,” said the manager. “I’m very happy with the goals he’s scored but, in the second half in particular, he controlled that midfield. If we can keep him fit and he can get plenty of PL [Premier League] matches and international matches, at his young age we think we’ve got a good player going forward. “We know we have excellent technicians in midfield in Wilshere, Jordan Henderson and Delph, James Milner and Adam Lallana, and that they’ve all got goals in them. Now they have to prove it. We’ll need their goals. We can’t just rely on our front players.”

The win means England have now gone 11 games unbeaten since their elimination from the World Cup in Brazil last June, with this their first season without defeat since 1990-91.

“The team has made progress,” added Hodgson. “It’s a good achievement, completing a season of 10 games with eight wins and two draws. That’s not been done for over 20 years. The players deserve some credit for that, and get plenty of credit from me. Now we have to keep building on it. We want to keep that unbeaten run going.”