Ross Barkley's first international goals in four years helped England recover from a goal down to thump Montenegro 5-1 in their Euro 2020 qualifier, though the result was marred by alleged racist chanting from the home crowd in Podgorica.
Marko Vesovic gave the hosts a shock lead with a fine finish after a mistake from Michael Keane, but the Everton defender soon made amends with a header on the half-hour mark.
Barkley then grabbed his first goal at international level since 2015 just before half-time, and made sure of the win with his second of the night on the hour mark. Harry Kane continued his fine run of goalscoring form with a late fourth and Sterling completed the rout with a fine goal of his own.
The latter made a gesture with his ears towards the Montenegro fans after scoring and there were alleged monkey chants aimed at Danny Rose towards the end, with Gareth Southgate confirming after the game that England will lodge an official complaint with Uefa.
England were high on confidence after a resounding 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic on Friday and Southgate decided to hand Callum Hudson-Odoi and Declan Rice their full debuts after impressive cameos in that game.
The former was involved early on as he bamboozled the Montenegro defence with his direct running and blistering pace. But the 18-year-old found himself on the wrong end of the first goal as Montenegro broke the deadlock.
Stefan Mugosa won the ball off Michael Keane and when the Everton defender went for a second bite of the cherry, his tackle was tame to say the least. That allowed Marko Vesovic to pick up the loose ball and the midfielder hit a fine curling effort beyond Jordan Pickford.
The goal appeared to wake up England after a slow start and it wasn't long before they were level. Barkley whipped in a perfect delivery from a free-kick and there was Keane to atone for his error, heading into the far corner.
Hudson-Odoi then had his moment, cutting inside from the left and beating two defenders before trying to find the far corner from 20 yards. It looked to have been heading wide when Barkley popped up in the box and stabbed home from close range.
After the interval, Montenegro came out of the blocks and nearly caught England napping but Fatos Beciraj somehow missed the target from six yards.
That miss would prove to be crucial as England found some breathing room on the hour mark. Sterling surged down the right and refused to give up the chance, finding Barkley with a cutback, and the Chelsea man confidently slammed home from 12 yards.
England were cruising now and put the game beyond doubt with a classic counter-attack. Barkley found Sterling, Sterling looked up and found Kane in the middle, and the Tottenham striker slotted home.
There was time for Sterling to get his name on the scoresheet and deservedly so. Jordan Henderson, on as a substitute, slid a well-timed through ball to split the sorry Montenegro defence in half and Sterling calmly sidefooted past Danijel Petkovic.
The 24-year-old appeared to cup his ears towards the Montenegro supporters, which brought about a loud chorus of boos, but he didn't care. Sterling had delivered once again and for a second time in four days, England had scored five to go top of Group A.
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