Gerrard: Rooney ‘magnificent’ in Montenegro match

Rooney scored for the fourth successive qualifier in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw – the first England player to achieve that feat since David Beckham ten years ago. The Manchester United striker was sent off on his last appearance at the stadium 17 months ago but his behaviour ensured a repeat would not happen.

Gerrard said: “Wayne is a fantastic player and a great goal-scorer. If the lads in the team can create the service for Wayne, we know he will score goals. He also deserves credit for that goalscoring record. Hopefully, he will get more goals and fire us to the World Cup. I also thought his behaviour was magnificent. He had been on the agenda in the press all week with people wondering how he was going to behave. I thought he handled himself magnificently and got us that important goal.”

Rooney’s goal was his 35th for his country and he is now only five behind fourth-placed Michael Owen in the all-time list of England goalscorers.

But his header failed to secure victory as Montenegro equalised through substitute Dejan Damjanovic and remain two points clear of England. Gerrard said: “At half-time we were very happy. We were in control and we played very well for 45 minutes. Then for some reason we stopped playing after the break and we let Montenegro back into the game. We finished the game really strongly but we are disappointed with the 30 minutes in the second half when we let them back into the game.

“But credit to them, they kept pushing and pushing and we have to hold our hands up and say they deserved an equaliser.”

“We will have to wait and see how the other teams do in their fixtures but we are more than capable of winning the last four matches.”