Sam Allardyce admitted his overriding emotion was one of relief after Adam Lallana’s stoppage-time goal secured victory in the manager’s first match in charge to kickstart England’s World Cup qualification campaign.
Lallana’s 95th-minute finish, scuffed through the goalkeeper Matus Kozacik’s legs, was his first goal in his 27th game and broke Slovakia’s resistance after they had lost their captain, Martin Skrtel, to a red card before the hour mark. “It was pretty nerve-racking at the end because the 10-men scenario meant we had to win,” Allardyce said. “To score that goal was a huge relief for me. You’ve got to beat 10 men and even if we weren’t as clinical as I expected us to be, we richly deserved it based on us dominating the game.
“This is the biggest job I’ve ever had. You know you’re leading the nation forward. Everyone is looking at you. They want you to show the way forward and be successful. It’s that much bigger when the nation’s watching you. I had a whole lot of messages today and it was impossible to try to attempt to reply to all the goodwill messages from across the country. Everyone back home was waiting with bated breath and we scored the winner. Everyone back home is happy. The fans here were happy and the goal came at their end. We dominated the game and got what we deserved.”
The hope is the win will have a galvanising effect on England in the wake of their toils at Euro 2016 in much the same way the 2-0 success in Switzerland two years ago, on the back of a dismal World Cup finals in Brazil, prompted a pristine qualification campaign.
“It was frustrating at times but that’s football,” Rooney said. “We didn’t panic and that’s the main thing. We stuck to our plan, kept our shape and tried to penetrate them in the right areas. Thankfully Adam got us the goal at the end to get us off to a great start.”
Allardyce, who offered the central defender John Stones praise for his performance, employed Rooney in midfield, allowing him the leeway to read the game and determine where best he could exert his influence. “That’s where Sam wanted me to play,” said the Manchester United forward, who became England’s most capped player with his 116th appearance. “We worked on it through the week. A lot of people thought I was going to play higher up the pitch but I think it suits me in this team for the way we play. So I’ve no problems playing there. I thought I contributed to the game.
“I had to tell them to get the ball forward quicker at half-time,” Allardyce said. “If you’re playing against Slovakia and you keep playing it sideways and backwards, it becomes difficult to penetrate. So I was encouraging Lallana, Raheem Sterling, Rooney, Jordan Henderson to get forward and play it off Harry Kane better. We played a very patient game in the end and the substitutes made a difference, fresh legs against 10 men and it finally paid off. But get the ball forward was the shout from me at half-time.
“We hit the post, had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside, had several shots on target and saw their goalkeeper make some saves, then Adam scores his first goal for England in the dying seconds. It can never come better than that. Hopefully we can get better. We have to try to be more effective breaking defences down. Slovakia were playing at home but never bothered coming out. It was about breaking that down.”
Stones, who had not featured for a single minute last summer in France, added: “This was massive. I think we always believed in our ability and there were no nerves or thoughts about the Euros in our minds. It was a bit slow and edgy at the start but we stuck to our gameplan, kept playing our football and a clean sheet, and late win is a good result in the end.”
