THEO FIRES UP FAB'S HEROES; Cole Axed: Robert Kovac's Elbow Connects with Joe Cole, Which Resulted in the England Man Going off Injured and Kovac Being Sent off You Beauty: Walcott Watches His First-Half Effort Go in at the Far Post in with a Shout: Capello Barks Instructions, as CroatIa's Night Was Summed Up by the Dismissal of No 4 Robert Kovac (Left) -

Byline: MATT LAWTON

CROATIA 1 ENGLAND 4

NOT for the first time yesterday, the end of the world was averted.

There was no large black hole waiting for Fabio Capello, no sense that the aura surrounding England's new manager had disappeared with a rather large bang.

On the contrary, it felt like England had finally woken to the dawn of a bright new era and that in Capello, the FA had found someone who can indeed guide England out of the darkness and on to South Africa and the next World Cup.

Capello had the courage to select Theo Walcott in a role so long occupied by David Beckham and my, how that gamble paid off. Not only in the form of three quite brilliant goals for the precociously gifted young winger England's first competitive hat-trick since Michael Owen's that night in Munich seven years ago but in the manner in which he terrorised a Croatia side that, until last night, had never lost a qualifier on home soil.

Not since Wayne Rooney burst on to the international scene has watching England been this exciting.

Not since Rooney then followed that fine debut with those two goals against Croatia at Euro 2004 has there been such a sense of optimism and ambition. If only more people could have seen this on …

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Publication information: Article title: THEO FIRES UP FAB'S HEROES; Cole Axed: Robert Kovac's Elbow Connects with Joe Cole, Which Resulted in the England Man Going off Injured and Kovac Being Sent off You Beauty: Walcott Watches His First-Half Effort Go in at the Far Post in with a Shout: Capello Barks Instructions, as CroatIa's Night Was Summed Up by the Dismissal of No 4 Robert Kovac (Left) -. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Daily Mail (London). Publication date: September 11, 2008. Page number: 86. © 2007 Daily Mail. COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale Group.

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