It might have been late and it might not have always been pretty.
But Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate has called for unity as England head to next summer’s World Cup in Russia.
Southgate’s side needed a stoppage-time strike from Harry Kane to give them victory over Slovenia at Wembley, to seal their place in the Finals with a game to spare.
And the manager, who initially took over last October to over-see the majority of the qualifying campaign, will now focus on getting his players ready for Russia.
“We know we have to get better but that's for tomorrow,” said Southgate.
“But tonight, as a country, we go to the World Cup.
"This team has potential, but we've got a hell of a lot of work to do.
"We come off the back of what happened in the last European Championships with the change of coach, a lot of difficulties throughout the campaign, but we're there and we look to where we can improve all the time.
"This is a young team, they're still learning all the time and nights like this aren't straightforward.”
It had looked as though it was going to be a frustrating night for England, with Slovenia running a tight ship throughout before opening up towards the end of the game.
And Southgate admits that was always to be expected against a side who have been excellent defensively throughout the qualifying stage and knew that a win on Thursday would keep their own World Cup hopes alive.
"We've played a team who have only conceded four goals in the competition and you saw why,” he added.
“They defended resolutely, broke the game up and took yellow cards when they had to and we weren't quite as sharp as we'd hope to be with the ball.
"But we stuck at it and it's not a coincidence if you keep scoring late goals.
"Late goals have been key, we knew that they had to win and would come onto us, so we had to change the formation at the end to give ourselves two up front and try and exploit that.”
Next month sees England’s World Cup preparations begin with a Wembley double-header against Germany and Brazil. For full details of how you can be there to see those games, click here.
