Gareth Southgate insists England have room to improve despite his side’s comfortable 3-0 victory over Scotland.
The interim Three Lions manager watched his team ease past Gordon Strachan’s men thanks to goals from Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill.
The win means England are now unbeaten in their last 33 qualifying matches since suffering a 1-0 defeat to Ukraine in October 2009.
But although Southgate was pleased with the triumph, he was quick to outline where his team can do better.
He said: “We caused some problems for ourselves but we want the team to play out from the back. At times we were sloppy in the way that we did that but it’s an area we can improve on.
“At the beginning of both halves, we encouraged Scotland to press but some of our use of the ball once we got through that phase was fantastic.
“We played with balance, interchanged positions, there were some superb individual performances and we managed the game reasonably well as it went towards the end.”
England lead Group F with 10 points – two ahead of second placed Slovenia and Southgate added: “I was asked to take the job for the four games and keep the country at the top of the group.
“Tonight was an important moment, not just for the supporters but for the team. It’s important they came through a pressure game and won and had a feeling of what that’s like at Wembley.
“I’ve loved doing the job, there’s no doubt about that, but I’m just content that we’ve won tonight – that was the most important thing. I know what it meant to our supporters to win the game. I’ve been reminded of it everywhere I’ve been in the last four weeks!
“I’m delighted to deliver that result for everybody. Today was a step forward in the players’ belief. They have shown elements of what they are capable of individually and collectively.
“They displayed lots of the things we worked on during the week, so that was pleasing. At the end we saw they can keep possession of the ball, have positional discipline and enjoy keeping possession.”
England will host Spain at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday night with Southgate expecting another tough game for his side. He said: “We’ve got a different challenge to prepare for against Spain which will be a great test for us.
“Playing Spain is one of the biggest challenges we can face. They have a clear identity of how they play throughout all their age groups. It’s going to be a huge test for us. It’s a good challenge and a different type of challenge to prepare for.”
