England 3 Spain 0

England recovered from early domination by Spain to hit three goals for a good win at the start of Sven Goran Eriksson's reign as coach.

The Spanish team in Birmingham at Villa Park started very well with calm possession and impressive movement but for all their use of the ball and the nerves of an unfamiliar England team they produced only one shot on target.

David James palmed down Ivan Helguera's rising 19th minute shot and England were then able to regroup and ease into the lead.

Michael Owen was used as a withdrawn striker in partnership with Andy Cole and he set up the first goal for Liverpool team mate Nick Barmby.

Barmby also scored the first goal for Glenn Hoddle's England team back in 1996 when he took charge for the first time in a World Cup qualifier in 1998.

Abelardo and Begera were caught out of position by a through pass over the top from Owen into Barmby's path for a low finish into the left hand corner of the net.

The goal came comletely against the run of play but it was wellworked and immediately flooded the England team with confidence which they used to raid the Spanish goal for the rest of the first half.

Four minutes before the interval Andy Cole was put clear by Paul Scholes for a drive which Iker Casillas parried and in the 45th minute Cole with his back to goal set up Owen for a fierce drive.

Eriksson said when he announced a large squad of 31 players on Friday that he would virtually play two teams in this friendly and the Swede introduced six new players at the start of the second half.

Off went Manchester United trio David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt and Frank Lampard, Emile Heskey and Gavin McCann were introduced into the midfield.

Into defence came Michael Ball at left back for the impressive Chris Powell who was effective against Gaizka Mendieta during the first session and Ugo Ehiogu.

Javi Moreno, the Alaves striker who is the Spanish Liga's top scorer was introduced by Jose Camacho for the second half.

In the 54th minute England went 2-0 up when a corner tempted Casillas from goal but he did not reach the ball and Ugo Ehiogu deflected the ball into Emile Heskey's path to drive the ball in.

Two minutes later Heskey had a powerful header from a corner cleared from the goal line and in the 68th minute centre back Ehiogu had a free header from a corner go into the roof of the net.

Spain rallied to earn a penalty in the 75th minute when Ehiogu appeared to clip Javi Moreno who fell in the area. Moreno fluffed his chance to score from the penalty spot when substitute goalkeeper Nigel Martyn dived to his left to save a weak ckick.

In the dying seconds substitute Victor was defied by a great last ditch tackle from Michael Ball when the ball reached him at the far post with Martyn beaten.

In looking for pointers to next month's two 2002 World Cup qualifiers it should be noted that Andy Cole and Michael Owen were kept together throughout this match despite the seven changes made by Eriksson to the starting line up. Veteran goalkeeper David Seaman was sent home according to the management because there was no place for him in the game as to other goalkeepers were named and took part.

There will now be speculation that Seaman's international career is over.