By David Hobbs
September 3 2005

Joe Cole's second half goal secure England a much needed 3 World Cup Qualifying points against Wales at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, but had to work for their reward.

Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Kieran Richardson all played their part in the narrow victory and need just 3 more points against Northern Ireland on Wednesday to win the group ahead of Poland. The trio shouldn't give Wales skipper Ryan Giggs too much stick when they return at Carrington late next week!

Wales, who were boosted by over 70,000 in attendance, and defended for much of the first half and had a few breakthroughs involving John Hartson.

Wayne Rooney had a chance to put England in the lead during the first half but his low shot was blocked by Danny Coyne and the follow up from Shaun Wright-Phillips was calmly saved also.

"We have three games to go and I hope we can win on Wednesday and then go on and win the group and qualify for the World Cup. That is our target." commented Sven Goran Eriksson after the game.

"At the end of the match we suffered. There were a lot of long balls coming close to our box, but suffering in football is good if you have the right attitude and we had that today," he added.

Wales: Coyne, Duffy, Page (James Collins 64), Gabbidon, Partridge, Ricketts, Fletcher, Robinson (Koumas 55), Davies (Earnshaw 69), Giggs, Hartson.
Substitutes Not Used: Edwards, Roberts, Jones, Ledley.

England: Robinson, Young, Carragher, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard (Richardson 84), Wright-Phillips (Defoe 67), Joe Cole (Hargreaves 76), Rooney.
Substitutes Not Used: Upson, Kirkland, Neville, Bent.

Attendance: 70,715

Refereed By: Valentin Ivanov (Russia). 

David Hobbs - Webmaster
[david@manutdweb.com]