It was goalless against Andorra in Barcelona and there were fears of supporters turning on the team just like they had two seasons before when Steve McClaren's men limped past the international minnows.

The difference on this occasion was Fabio Capello.

The Italian asked assistant manager Stuart Pearce for his advice as they walked off at the interval, with the under-21 boss suggesting to "give it another 10 minutes".

Capello thought differently, introducing Joe Cole for the start of the second half and proceeded to watch the Chelsea midfielder score twice to secure maximum points.

That bold decision set the tone for what followed. Four days later Capello kept faith in Theo Walcott when it was predicted Croatia would batter the Arsenal winger off the ball.

The rest was history as Walcott lit up Zagreb with a famous hat-trick in a 4-1 victory over the team who had ended England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008.

That momentum carried England. Kazakhstan got to half-time goalless at Wembley but Wayne Rooney eventually killed them off. Belarus also drew level in Minsk after Steven Gerrard had opened the scoring but then Capello's men pulled away, again thanks to Rooney.

It meant five goals in three qualifiers for the Manchester United striker and he was the key to England blazing a trail to South Africa. The trip to Belarus was seen as a tricky obstacle but coming through the test injected confidence.

A friendly defeat to Spain showed Capello how much improvement was needed but that lesson in Seville was credited with raising England's standard for the second part of their qualifying campaign.

Ukraine were beaten at Wembley, just, after Andriy Shevchenko looked to have earned a point in the city where he flopped with Chelsea.

Maintaining their perfect record meant the finals were in sight after straightforward victories over Kazakhstan and Andorra in the summer of 2009, with an aggregate of 10 goals scored in those two games.

They still needed a result against Croatia when the new campaign started, just to make sure they would be in South Africa. It turned into an emphatic 5-1 victory against Slaven Bilic's men, completing the revenge mission.

It started with a Frank Lampard penalty, he and Gerrard netted twice and Rooney got the other as the celebrations started.

The final two matches did not really matter but Capello's 100% record was ended in Ukraine with a 1-0 defeat, then they completed their campaign in style with a 3-0 win over Belarus.