England beat Kazakhstan 4-0 today to leave Fabio Capello's side in sight of qualifying for next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.
The trip was ultimately a comfortable one although England endured some scary moments before goals from Gareth Barry and Emile Heskey just before halftime settled them down.
A 2-0 interval lead flattered the visitors but they improved after the break with Wayne Rooney's hooked shot and Frank Lampard's penalty finishing off their lowly-ranked opponents who arguably played the game's better football.
England's victory means they have won six out of six in Group Six, topping the table comfortably with 18 points from Croatia (10) and Ukraine (7) who meet later.
Victory over the group's whipping boys Andorra at Wembley on Wednesday will sign off an encouraging season for Capello's England before they return in the autumn to put the finishing touches to their qualification campaign.
"It wasn't easy to play here, the pitch wasn't fast like English pitches and it made passing very hard," Capello told Setanta Sport.
"They started strong, pressed a lot, and for us it was difficult, but that's sometimes what happens when you play against a team who aren't at the same level. It's another big step forward to qualification."
LITTLE JUSTICE
England beat Kazakhstan 5-1 at Wembley in October, a scoreline that did little justice to the losers.
For 40 minutes on Saturday they again matched a side 126 places higher up the FIFA rankings.
They could have taken the lead after 20 seconds when England right back Glenn Johnson was caught out and Sergey Ostapenko was inches away from converting a low cross.
After 17 minutes Ostapenko rose to power a header into the net but England were saved by an offside flag.
England had struggled to construct any decent moves and it was something of a surprise when Barry headed a Steven Gerrard cross into the net five minutes before the break.
Gerrard was again involved in first-half stoppage time when his lofted ball was misjudged by home keeper Alexandr Mokin and Heskey pounced to punish his error.
The Kazakhs were less of a threat after the break and Rooney hooked a third goal over his shoulder after 73 minutes after Mokin had stopped the Manchester United striker's first effort with a great save.
Lampard then lashed England's fourth from the spot after Heskey had been pulled down in the area.