Wayne Rooney’s character lauded by Roy Hodgson after England win

Roy Hodgson praised Wayne Rooney’s strength of character after his captain retained his composure following a series of missed chances, and his discipline having been elbowed, to conjure the winner which hauled him level with Gary Lineker as England’s joint second-leading scorer.
Rooney, floored by Bostjan Cesar’s flailing arm moments earlier, pounced on Bojan Jokic’s mistake four minutes from time to slide his 48th goal for his country beyond Samir Handanovic and maintain England’s perfect record in Group E. The 29-year-old is one shy of Sir Bobby Charlton’s record, with San Marino awaiting in September when qualification can effectively be secured. His eight goals in 10 internationals have contributed heavily to the side’s unbeaten record this season.
The Manchester United striker had missed a flurry of opportunities earlier in a frantic contest illuminated by Jack Wilshere’s first goals for the national side. “Wayne Rooney’s performance says a lot of things about him as a man,” said Hodgson. “Just before he took that chance he had taken a nasty blow from an elbow, which could have decked many a player and led to him losing his discipline. But it didn’t and he simply got up and played on.
“The fact one or two chances had gone begging earlier also didn’t worry him because, when the ball fell to him four minutes from the end, he still stuck it away with aplomb. We can rely on that man. I’d have liked him to get a hat-trick today so all the talk of the record would have been finished, but he has plenty of time on his side to achieve that still.”
Lineker was quick to congratulate Rooney, who now boasts 28 goals in qualification games for the World Cup or European Championships, on his achievement. “I’m pleased to be joined by Wayne Rooney on 48 goals,” he said. “It seemed, during a five-minute spell in the second half, it might not happen when he struck two over the bar, but Wayne’s been a consistently excellent player over the years.
“I’m sure he will go on and surpass the great Sir Bobby Charlton. He’s still only 29 and he’s a formidable talent and he has a fabulous goalscoring record, especially in qualifiers.”
Cesar was not cautioned for the elbow flung at the striker as the captains clashed inside the penalty area just after Slovenia’s equaliser, which had tied the game at 2-2. The pair had tangled once before, in a friendly at Wembley in 2009 when the England striker had won a penalty despite appearing to connect heavily with Cesar’s ankle. The Slovenian was booked and had subsequently spent a lengthy spell on the sidelines, describing the tackle as “stupid, stupid foul” at the time.“We thought it could have been a penalty,” said Hodgson of the incident in Ljubljana. “But the referee handled the game well. Slovenia are a strong, physical, aggressive team: Fabian Delph took an elbow to his jaw and Raheem Sterling a nasty kick at the end of the game as well. But the players showed their resilience. The team spirit is getting better all the time. They didn’t leave much on the field in terms of effort and determination.”

Jack Wilshere lets fly to score his second goal. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

While there was frustration at the nature of the first-half goal which meant England trailed at the break, stemming as it did from a Phil Jones throw-in deep in Slovenia’s half, Hodgson was hugely encouraged by the recovery mounted courtesy of Wilshere’s eye-catching brace. “His whole performance was quality,” said the manager. “I’m very happy with the goals he’s scored but, in the second half in particular, he controlled that midfield. If we can keep him fit and he can get plenty of PL [Premier League] matches and international matches, at his young age we think we’ve got a good player going forward. “We know we have excellent technicians in midfield in Wilshere, Jordan Henderson and Delph, James Milner and Adam Lallana, and that they’ve all got goals in them. Now they have to prove it. We’ll need their goals. We can’t just rely on our front players.”
The win means England have now gone 11 games unbeaten since their elimination from the World Cup in Brazil last June, with this their first season without defeat since 1990-91.
“The team has made progress,” added Hodgson. “It’s a good achievement, completing a season of 10 games with eight wins and two draws. That’s not been done for over 20 years. The players deserve some credit for that, and get plenty of credit from me. Now we have to keep building on it. We want to keep that unbeaten run going.”

Roy Hodgson Is The Man Charged With The Responsibility Of Leading England At UEFA EURO 2012

England will go into UEFA EURO 2012 with Roy Hodgson as their manager after the Football Association (FA) confirmed his appointment on a four-year contract.

Hodgson replaces Fabio Capello, who quit the role in February, and will have just two friendly matches – against Norway in Oslo on 26 May, and Belgium at Wembley on 2 June – before England embark on their EURO campaign against France in Donetsk on 11 June.

"Roy emerged as our stand-out candidate," said David Bernstein, the chairman of the FA, at the press conference to unveil England's new appointment. "We quickly agreed Roy is the right man to guide us through the European Championships and future tournaments.

"We were unanimous in choosing Roy, a manager with vast experience of international and European football. This is the first time the FA has appointed an England manager with any previous international experience. This, I'm sure, will be of great benefit in helping him make the adjustments from club management."

Hodgson described feelings of great pride at taking the job he regards to be "the pinnacle" of football management. "It's a very proud day for me," he said. "I'm a very happy man to have been offered the chance to manage my country. I'm looking forward enormously to the task ahead; everyone knows it's not an easy one but I also think that everybody – the fans – will get behind the team because it's the team that counts, and it's the team that will win us matches."

Hodgson added that he was aiming to guide England to victory at UEFA EURO 2012 and that the announcement of his provisional squad for the tournament would be put back until the end of the season in order for him to do "as much research" and "speak to as many players as possible". The 64-year-old has also agreed to see out West Bromwich Albion FC's final two Premier League matches of the campaign – against Bolton Wanderers FC and Arsenal FC – before focusing on the matter of steering England to glory in Poland and Ukraine.

"England have always got to go into a tournament with the aim of winning it because we're a major footballing nation. It will be difficult because I've come in at a rather late stage, but I think the players would be disappointed if I tried to do anything less."

The FA announced on Sunday that it had made an approach to West Brom to speak to Hodgson, who had been manager at The Hawthorns since February last year and whose contract with the club ends this summer.

England have been without a manager since the resignation of Capello. Under-21 coach Stuart Pearce held the reins for the 3-2 home friendly defeat by the Netherlands at the end of February.

Hodgson has previous experience of international football with Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Finland and as coach of the Swiss ended their 28-year absence from major tournaments when steering them to the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the last 16. He also led Switzerland to EURO '96 qualification but moved on to FC Internazionale Milano before the finals.

In an interview with UEFA.com last year, Hodgson reflected on the different challenge of international management when he said: "The major difference for me was the nature of the work and what it demanded from me. You get more preparation time, which is good. I always felt that I was able to go in and really talk with some expertise on the opponents, because I had the chance to follow them and study them and prepare the videos."

Known as a hands-on coach on the training ground, Hodgson also voiced his awareness of one of the potential perils of the job. "There's a risk with being a national coach, that after periods of inactivity you try to do too much in a short period of time," he said.

"You also forget that the players come from a day-to-day environment, they come to you maybe a little bit tired from their club training sessions, and you are trying to get the maximum and demanding a lot from them in your training sessions; it can be a dangerous job for people like myself who like to be out on the field coaching the players."

Hodgson will face these challenges and more in his new role, but can draw on almost four decades of experience from a coaching career which began with Swedish club Halmstad BK in the mid-1970s.
Since then Hodgson has managed clubs in five other countries – Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Norway and, of course, England. He returned to his homeland in 2007 to take charge of Fulham FC and led them to the UEFA Europa League final in 2010, just as he had done with Inter in the 1997 UEFA Cup, before a short-lived spell as Liverpool FC manager.