Beating San Marino 5-0 is hardly a victory to be celebrated. Roy Hodgson knew it, too.
But such is the procession that Euro 2016 qualifying has become that he is under little pressure. England saw out a ropey first 25 minutes to stroll to an expected scoreline.
"It was a job well done," said England's manager. "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."
Instead, the narrative switched to his captain's search for goals, taking his tally to 42 with a first-half penalty. Despite Hodgson later suggesting so, there is little hope of Rooney claiming a second. His 77th-minute shot rattled off Alessandro Della Valle for a clear own goal. Number 43 will have to wait until Tallinn on Sunday, as the ultimate search for 49 goes on.
Rooney is the king of qualifying campaigns for his country. He has scored just 12 in friendlies, with a mighty 30 in competitive internationals, including six at major tournaments. Bobby Charlton, the current record-holder, scored just 10 in competitive goals, and five of them came in a qualifier against Luxembourg. Rooney pushes on in his quest to overtake the Manchester United legend whose club record he may surpass one day, too, but Hodgson was not concerned that his captain might be too concerned with personal glory. At times, Rooney did seem a little desperate to add to his tally.
"It was a good solid captain's performance," said Hodgson. "I don't think it plays on his mind, to be frank. What is he? 28, 29? We like to think that the way he is he has got good football left in him. I don't think we can put pressure on him to achieve targets early."
The early removal of two Liverpool players in Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson at halftime begged the question of whether Hodgson had done so to pander to Brendan Rodgers, who had been so enraged by Daniel Sturridge sustaining a training injury during the last international round. Hodgson denied that any such deal had taken place.
"To be fair to Brendan, when I spoke to him about Daniel, the only players we talked about were Daniel and Glen Johnson. It was purely our decision," said Hodgson "It was nice to take players like Sterling, Henderson and Welbeck off, players who might play a part on Sunday."
In the Anfield pair's stead came on Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Both made an impact, with Lallana especially impressing his coach. "Adam was every bit as dangerous when he came on as we know Raheem can be."
Both players helped take the evening firmly into English hands.
"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," said Hodgson.
"In the second half against a team that is tiring with a high passing tempo we created some very good occasions."
Asked if there was a point to his team turning up, San Marino coach Pierangelo Manzaroli said, "It's an experience first of all.
"It's the pleasure of playing in such a great stadium in front of fantastic fans against a big team, to which I wish all the best. As for the result, against teams of this stature, sometimes it's worse, so that's a takeaway."
Hodgson said he believed San Marino had improved from last season, when his team won 8-0 in March 2013.
With Switzerland losing again, this time to Slovenia, England are already sitting pretty in Group E. Estonia await on Sunday, and even though it is difficult to draw too many concrete conclusions from beating San Marino in such fashion, Hodgson's team look to be breezing to France 2016.