On a night of new beginnings at Old Trafford, John Terry marked the opening
match of his reign as England captain with the first goal, with Chelsea
team-mate Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch (twice) also scoring.
The goals came with the help of some generous Greek defending but that should
not distract from the freshness of England's first-half display.
McClaren's pre-match call was for the players to break free from the
'shackles of expectation' and they answered it in style.
They set about the game with pace and a range of movement, which seemed a
million miles from what it had been under his predecessor in the World Cup
finals.
The 4-0 scoreline was the best start by an England manager for 60 years.
Walter Winterbottom started his reign with a 7-2 win over Northern Ireland in
1946 and, at one point, McClaren's new-look team looked capable of beating
that.
McClaren's assistant Terry Venables beat Greece 5-0 in his second game at the
helm, in 1994. Twelve years later, Venables was back in the camp and everything
McClaren touched worked perfectly.
There may have been no David Beckham but the new boss reshuffled roughly the
same squad used by Sven-Goran Eriksson in Germany, just making a couple of
tweaks to the way they played.
True, this was a friendly and the faded European champions looked nothing like
a world power but the new England manager could not have dreamed that his
changes would work so emphatically.
Terry was given the captain's armband and promptly opened the scoring.
Steven Gerrard was moved to the right and rampaged forward like he does for
Liverpool.
Gerrard's first-half efforts were outstanding and probably deserved the man of
the match award which went to Owen Hargreaves.
But it was Hargreaves' presence in the centre of midfield which allowed
Lampard to run free and rediscover his scoring touch after a barren World Cup.
Hargreaves, who took Beckham's number seven shirt, delivered another
intelligent performance in front of the back four.
Stewart Downing in his first England start, set up three goals from the left
wing.
Crouch, brought in to replace the injured Dean Ashton, scored twice to take
his England return to eight goals in 12 games.
When asked to defend, McClaren's team did it well, with Ashley Cole twice
clearing from the line in a matter of seconds at the start of the second half.
McClaren even ended the saga about Chris Kirkland's dad's bet by handing the
goalkeeper his first cap at half-time.
Eddie Kirkland and his mates stand to win a £10,000 jackpot after wagering
£100, 12 years ago, on Chris playing for England.
Kirkland made one excellent flying save to deny Georgios Karagounis in the
closing minutes.
McClaren was not given the warmest of welcomes to the touchline ahead of his
first game.
He wandered to the bench in his suit, almost unnoticed as the teams lined up
to be presented the Football Association dignitaries.
England fans soon warmed to him. When he returned after the half-time
interval, with his team 4-0 up, he was cheered.
Terry had triggered the mood swing with his second England goal. The new
captain leapt above Angelos Charisteas to head England in front in the 14th
minute.
Lampard made it two on the half hour. He won the ball, deep in his own half,
gave it to Jermain Defoe and charged forward.
Defoe's pass found him and Lampard enjoyed a stroke of luck as his shot
clipped defender Paraskevas Antzas and looped over keeper Antonios Nikopolidis.
Lampard was close to his second within five minutes when he latched onto a low
Downing cross but Nikopolidis saved and Crouch tapped in the rebound.
Crouch's second was equally simple, a near-post header from another pinpoint
cross by Downing.
McClaren preached the virtues of flexibility before the game and he changed
his system for the last 20 minutes. Off came Defoe and Downing and on went
Kieran Richardson and Aaron Lennon.
England adopted a 4-5-1 formation, designed to become 4-3-3 on the attack, and
Richardson and Lennon were the wide men.
Darren Bent, Jamie Carragher and Wayne Bridge all appeared as well but England
were unable to add to their first-half tally.
It may have been part of McClaren's plan to keep a lid on expectations ahead
of the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.
It is worth remembering that Greece were not good enough to reach the World
Cup finals. They are certainly not the well-drilled unit they were in Euro 04.
Beware Greeks gifting goals but this demolition job left England fans to
wonder what might have been.
England 4 - 0 Greece
