What an impact Wayne Rooney made against Turkey in the week.

I could not believe the confidence of a lad so young and he deserves all the praise he gets.

I must admit I was a bit concerned about Sven-Goran Eriksson starting with him in such an important game because I thought the pressure would be too much for the kid.

However, he proved me wrong and showed so much pace, skill and awareness it was frightening.

I know people keep saying it, but he is going to be one of the great players England have produced.

He almost looks the finished article now but you have to keep telling yourself he is only 17-years-old and has still got a lot of developing to do.

I can't see him being able to turn it on like that every time though as the opposition will get wise to him and target him as a danger man.

When Michael Owen burst on the scene it shocked teams and they didn't know how to cope but once they know who he is they try and contain him and he no longer gets the freedom he used to.

Rooney was not the only one to play well on the night, it was a superb team performance and will give all the players a lot of confidence.

I think a few of them were a bit stunned by the criticism they received after the Liechtenstein game and wanted to prove a few people wrong.

I was not too surprised with the performance in Liechtenstein because it can sometimes be more difficult to play top quality football against inferior teams.

Players also naturally raise their games against better opposition and they certainly did that against Turkey who are a very good side.

You have to remember they finished third in the World Cup just last year and have some real top class players.

Illan Mansiz, Emre Belezoglu, Nihat Kahveci are all quality but England outplayed them and thoroughly deserved their win.

Playing England seems to put the fear of God in to some international sides and Turkey are one of them.

They had never scored against England and I think the players were effected psychologically by that and were under pressure to do well.

England have a great chance to qualify from the group now and they certainly have the players to do well in the European Championships next year.

They play Slovakia next and having David Beckham out through that yellow card he picked up against Turkey will be a big blow.

He proved again how much of an important player he is when he scored the free kick against Liechtenstein and again when he scored the penalty against Turkey.

You need players like that who can win you the game through a setpiece or one moment of brilliance and the best teams like Brazil have had those sort of players for years.

When Ronaldo is not scoring they have players like Rivaldo who can score a free kick and when he is not doing it Ronaldinho can step in and do it.

England are starting to get like that now with some real quality players coming through.

If you looked on the bench there was Jonathan Woodgate who is a top player for me, and Kieran Dyer who I really like the look of.

Darius Vassell also did well when he came on and he seems to have found his feet at international level.

I have always said it takes eight to ten international games to know what it's all about and when you think there can be only about five or six games during a whole year, it can take time for players to mature.

But a lot of the England youngsters have had that now and are looking like top international players, so the future certainly looks bright for Sven and his team.

Saturday April 5