Room for improvement to England's late show

England booked their place in the World Cup second round, welcomed back Wayne Rooney and gave themselves plenty of room for improvement in their 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's men were teetering on the verge of an embarrassing draw on Thursday in Nuremberg before Peter Crouch redeemed himself with a far post header in the 83rd minute.

Steven Gerrard's superb left-foot strike in stoppage time made the scoreline respectable and Rooney's half-hour seemed to give England a real psychological lift after a near seven-week absence with a broken foot.

Helped by the cooler conditions, the performance was certainly better than their laboured 1-0 win over Paraguay in sweltering Frankfurt five days before.

However, there was still cause for concern as England prepared for their final Group B game against Sweden on Tuesday in Cologne - principally in attack.

On Thursday's evidence, all of England's regular goalscorers are either lacking form, fitness or both.

Michael Owen is the principal worry, getting substituted early in the second half of both England's games and looking dangerous in neither.

Sidelined after a foot injury on December 31, the fact that he has played only once for Newcastle United this year is reflected in a real lack of sharpness in front of goal - despite plenty of promising signs in training.

True form

Though his record for England brooks no argument, with 36 goals in 79 games, England need him to find his true form if they are to go all the way to Berlin on July 9.

Asked if he was worried about losing his place in the side, Owen said: "No. What will be will be. If I do not play, I do not play.

"I am reasonably pleased with my form, you always want to score and play well, I am no different to anyone else."

Owen is England's senior striker at the finals with Crouch, Rooney and Theo Walcott experiencing their first World Cup.

He featured in England's warm-up matches, scoring in the 6-0 demolition of Jamaica - his first goal of the year - and declared himself fully fit for the finals.

But against Paraguay and Trinidad Owen appeared a forlorn figure, shackled well by both defences and spurning the few chances that came his way.

"I am not worried about scoring goals, I have done that since I was born, I am not disappointed with the way I played," added the striker, who is playing at his third World Cup.

"I had one good chance with my head which I will probably kick myself for not scoring, apart from that it was difficult for everyone, not just me. I am not giving the ball away much, I am making runs and feeling sharp."

Meanwhile, against Trinidad, usually-dependable Frank Lampard, who top-scored for champions Chelsea last season with 20 goals and hit three at Euro 2004, missed a hatful of chances.

Lampard had scored 10 times in his previous 22 England games before the tournament and Eriksson will certainly hope his finishing against the Soca Warriors was just a blip.

Crouch, though he scored the vital goal, had been disappointing for the preceding 82 minutes; his low point being a mis-directed volley from a David Beckham cross that was worthy of any Sunday league pub team.

Rooney, whose injury soap-opera is at last drawing to a close, is, of course, a special case.

There were some nice passes and plenty of runs, but little more could be expected from a 20-year-old who had hobbled away from Stamford Bridge on crutches with a double metatarsal fracture on April 29.