Logo of ITV Football
itv |

Football

Hodgson: No plans to sub Rooney

England coach Roy Hodgson denied he had decided to substitute Wayne Rooney immediately before the captain's winning goal against Estonia.

Substitute striker Rickie Lambert was being readied on the sideline as Rooney stood over his 73rd-minute free-kick, but sat down with a smile after watching the Manchester United man's shot squirm through goalkeeper Sergei Pareiko's hands.

Hodgson told ITV Sport's Gabriel Clarke: "I was in discussions with other members of my staff, I don't know about forms going in.

"No doubt you're going to produce some evidence in a minute about a form going in, but that wasn't my intention.

"We were going to put Rickie Lambert on and we were discussing which of the forwards to take off.

"I hadn't made up my mind, it was probably more likely to be Danny Welbeck and it had to be Danny in the end because he tweaked his ankle."

The win, England's third in three qualifiers for Euro 2016, was just reward for a dominant performance let down by the lack of a killer touch in front of goal.

"To come in at half-time, after playing like that, at 0-0 there was an air of frustration," Hodgson said.

"We had so many opportunities in and around the box, you think we had to take one, and we didn't.

"Thankfully we took one in the second half and it's four wins in a row, five clean sheets, these are things not to be sniffed at."

Logo of ITV Football
itv |

Football