Football
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England's goal difference in qualifying doesn't matter, Andros Townsend says

Goalscorer Andros Townsend does not believe England should beat themselves up after only defeating minnows San Marino 5-0 on Thursday night.

England barely broke a sweat as they hit five goals against the world's worst national team, with Phil Jagielka, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Townsend and an Alessandro Della Valle own goal on the scoresheet.

When asked if Roy Hodgson's side should have scored more goals, Townsend told ITV: "The main thing was that we got the three points.

"We're hoping not to win the group on goal difference, we're hoping to win it by two or three points, so two, three, four, five tonight doesn't really matter that much.

"The manager has always shown faith in me and although it was only against San Marino it was nice to come on and get my goal and repay the manager's faith."

Jack Wilshere, who was named man of the match, hailed the professional performance from the Three Lions.

He said: "We have done what we had to do. We knew we were going into a game that we were going to win. It was just a matter of keeping our concentration.

"We knew it could take 20-25 minutes [to score]. Last time it took 40 minutes to get the goal and once we got it I knew we could get a few and we looked really professional. We showed them enough respect and kept going.

"We didn't play against one of the top nations in the world but we did a job and we're happy with that and we'll look forward to Sunday."

England manager Hodgson was impressed with the performance shown by his side.

"It was a job well done. I certainly can't fault the players for their application throughout the game and I'm really pleased we've got this game behind us. They're never easy games to play but we've won it comfortably and added five goals to our tally," he said.

"In the first half of these games when a fit and healthy team is getting 10 men behind the ball, that is the time you have to wear them down and keep plugging away and keep doing the right things and know if you keep doing that and score one or two goals, in the second half it is going to open up and there will be chances for lots and lots of goals.

"In the second half against a team that is tiring with a high-passing tempo we created some very good occasions."

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