'They've been good enough so far but must keep improving'

Roy Hodgson says he is happy with what he has seen from his England squad after they clinched top spot in their Euro 2016 qualifying group with two games to spare.

The Three Lions started on the road to France last year following a disappointing World Cup in Brazil, and also had to cope with the retirement of some key, experienced campaigners.

However, the England boss has guided a youthful team to the Finals with eight straight wins and believes that their fixture programme between now and next summer, which includes games against France and Spain, can only help them further.

"After the World Cup we were looking for victories, looking for momentum, looking for players who played in that game against Costa Rica to go on and do well," said Hodgson, whose team sealed Group E with a 2-0 win over Switzerland on Tuesday.

"We were looking for players like [Ross] Barkley, who came on in the [Costa Rica] game, [Raheem] Sterling, to keep pushing on. All of those type of things.

"We realised that we were faced with a bit of a generation change, that we can't keep hold of great players like Frank [Lampard] and Stevie [Gerrard], John Terry, Ashley Cole and Gareth Barry. We can't keep them forever.

"We had to hope the ones who were coming forward would be good enough to do the job, but they were young ones. And you're always a little bit worried that you're going to get caught out in terms of experience or the pressure's going to be too much for them.

"But I'd like to think that they've shown it hasn't proven too much for them and by the time we get to France, they'll have another 10 games under their belts."

Young Lions Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jonjo Shelvey in training

Hodgson continued: "They've certainly been good enough to get through the qualifying campaign. They've even got us through one or two tricky friendlies as well.

"There's no point me making big headlines: 'Hodgson says this group will go far.' I've got no need to do that. What this group's got to do is keep working, got to keep improving, got to keep learning.

"It was never going to be easy to replace 100-cap men, but it had to be done and because of the way it is in English football, it had to be done with young players."

One England centurion does remain in Hodgson's squad, however.

Wayne Rooney chalked up his 107th appearance in the win against the Swiss, overtaking Sir Bobby Charlton's tally to join level with Cole as the Three Lions fifth most-capped player.

Meanwhile, he also smashed home a penalty to become the first England international to score 50 for his country - again surpassing Charlton.

And Hodgson says Rooney has qualities many of the younger members of his squad can learn from.

Wayne Rooney speaks to his team-mates after scoring his 50th for England

"From Wayne they can learn about professionalism, they can learn about desire, they can learn about pride in playing for the country," he said. 

"They can learn about the need that whatever qualities you've got, you've still got to fight. You have to chase back when you lose the ball, you have to throw yourself into challenges to stop centre-backs heading them away, you have to put your foot in sometimes to stop an important counter-attack.

"On top of that you have to show top technical qualities. Someone's battling qualities alone are not good enough for England. We need technical qualities, which Wayne has got in abundance. 

"When you ally those to these other qualities then you are talking about a seriously important player."

Roy Hodgson's England squad face two final Group E qualifiers next month. 

First up is a meeting with Estonia at Wembley on Friday 9 October, and tickets for the game are still available. Click here to buy online.