England scored three goals in the final five minutes to beat Malta 4-0 to maintain their leadership in World Cup qualifying Group F at the National Stadium.

England soon made their intentions clear after a minute when Kane played in Raheem Sterling but the Man. City forward was denied by the alert Andrew Hogg and Steve Borg.

At the other end, Malta threatened with a thumping drive from Ryan Fenech that finished just over.

Hogg again came to Malta’s rescue on the third minute when he pulled off a fine one-handed save on Kane’s thumping header following Dele Alli’s cross.

England continued to dominate proceedings but for all their possession they struggled to break down a resolute Malta defence.

In fact they had to wait until stoppage time when Alex Oxlade Chamberlain latched on to Kane’s pass but his low pass was blocked by Hogg.

On the restart, Malta came close on 50 minutes when Andre Schembri was picked by Jean Paul Farrugia on the edge of the area and his thumping drive flashed wide.

England responded strongly as they took the lead on 52 minutes. Sam Magri cleared Jack Livermore’s cross-pass into the path of Alli who dallied past three Maltese defenders before picking up Kane who fired the ball past Hogg.

England added a second four minutes from time when Ryan Bertrand hit a powerful long drive that flew underneath the body of Hogg and into the net.

Malta were now down and out and a minute into stoppage time, Welbeck made it 3-0 when he latched on to Kane’s pass to push the ball into the net.

There was more misery for the hosts as two minutes later Rashford picked Kane inside the area and the Tottenham forward slid the ball past Hogg.