Qualification for the European Championships in 2016 seems all but assured for this England team, and they will no doubt go with our blessing to France for the tournament. However, for now, we will have to make do with these flat and lifeless performances. 

Against Slovenia on Saturday, even when it did get marginally better, it was still all rather unconvincing. 

Roy Hodgson’s England remain at the top of Group E after a fourth consecutive win but they needed to come from behind against Slovenia to retain their unbeaten status after yet another underwhelming display.

The England manager gave a debut to Southampton full-back Nathaniel Clyne, who impressed. Few others did in truth, including Wayne Rooney, on the occasion of winning his 100th cap for his country.

“We began to play a lot better after going behind, our first goal was almost against the run of play but it came at just the right time,” said Hodgson, who takes his squad to Celtic Park for tomorrow’s friendly match against Scotland.

“We didn’t start all that well but games last 90 minutes. You don’t always get what you want in a game or what you think you are going to get.

“We were a bit sterile at times, we didn’t get the penetration we were looking for or create the chances we were looking for, but Slovenia had a say in that.”

As a contest, it took Jordan Henderson’s 57th minute own-goal from a Milivoje Novakovic free-kick to bring some life to a desperately poor affair. The first half had ended with a smattering of boos from the Wembley crowd of more than 82,000.

England’s response, however, was good. Just over a minute after going behind, Rooney won a penalty kick after being tripped in the penalty area by defender Bostjan Cesar. He stepped up before slamming the spot-kick beyond goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

England captain Rooney, who had pulled himself level with Jimmy Greaves in third place of all-time England goal-scorers, had been presented with a commemorative gold cap ahead of the match by Sir Bobby Charlton.

Rooney said: “Obviously I’m proud to have won 100 caps and ended up on the winning side. It is a great honour to represent England so often and hopefully I will do so on many more occasions, but not many players have reached 100 and no-one can take that away from me.”

Welbeck put England ahead on 65 minutes when his scuffed finish bounced beyond Handanovic before extending the margin six minutes later when he finished confidently after a neat exchange with Raheem Sterling.

The England manager is expected to make wholesale changes against Scotland.