Andros Townsend scored another delightful goal for England at Wembley – and admits that the national stadium seems to bring out the best in him.
The Tottenham Hotspur winger came off the bench in the second half and smashed home the fourth goal in a 5-0 win.
And it was reminiscent of his effort against Montenegro in the same goal a year earlier and helps send England into their third Group E game against Estonia full of confidence.
England 5-0 San Marino
European Qualifier Group E
Thursday 9 October 2014
Wembley Stadium connected by EE
"The manager gave us some checkpoints that he wanted us to tick and the main thing wasn’t how many goals we scored, it was about playing well as a team," Townsend told TheFA.com after the game.
"I think we did that, so it was a pleasing night for us and we will go into the Estonia full of confidence looking to get another three points and put us at the top of the group.
"I’ve scored here before and seem to save my best goals and performances for Wembley,” he said. “It’s been a frustrating season for me and I was pleased that the manager showed faith in me.
"Although it was only San Marino, I repaid that faith with another goal."
With a potentially tricky visit to Tallinn next up for Roy Hodgson's men on Sunday, Townsend says that game was not in their minds with the focus fully on doing the job against San Marino.
England expected the visitors to defend for most of the game, but the 23-year-old says that once Phil Jagielka broke the deadlock the game opened up and the win was never in doubt.
Andros Townsend spoke to FATV at full-time
"We weren’t looking forward to Estonia, we were looking at this match," he said. "If you look too far ahead then San Marino could trip you up.
"They defended well for 25 minutes and once we got the goal the game opened up and the quality showed.
"The last time we played them [at Wembley in 2012] it took 35 minutes to get the first goal, so we knew it was going to be difficult. They set up with a 5-4-1 and we just had to break them down.
"But once we got the first goal it was pretty much a routine victory for us."
He added: "Team spirit is improving all the time and we’re all getting to know each other.
"It’s a relatively new squad and I’m sure over time that will come and we’ll become an even better team than we are now."
