EASY AGAINST HARTSON

Rio Ferdinand has hovered like a spectre over the flawed endeavours of the England side these past 12 months as everyone did their best to pretend we were getting on just fine without him.

But when his purgatory ended against a desperately disappointing Wales team, his return was laced with such brutal efficiency it proved exactly what we have been missing.

Ferdinand was class personified against John Hartson on Saturday. He made the Celtic forward look like a lump of cheap meat. Of all the many mis-matches on the pitch, this was the most pronounced.

Ferdinand played like a bully in a lecturer's gown. He was a meticulous bully. A neat bully. An academic dissecting Hartson's weaknesses as if they were a bad argument.

A relentless and merciless bully. Not swinging a baseball bat. But wielding his footballing brain like a deadly weapon.

With Ferdinand in the team and that starburst of precocious talent called Wayne Rooney giving England's attacking moves a spark of unpredictability, everything seems possible again.

"I feel sorry for Terry and King," Eriksson said, "but Rio Ferdinand is great. He is one of the best central defenders in the world."

"It is nice to see him and Sol together again. There's no stress. The ball goes towards our defence and boom, they win it.”