Confident Barry made for the middle

Confidence can be a much more valuable commodity than raw talent at times and Gareth Barry's successful return to international football against Israel provided the Aston Villa player with the opportunity to audition for the role of Steve Gerrard's permanent central midfield partner at Wembley last night.

Once more, the 26-year-old did his case no harm at all.

Against far better opposition than he had faced on Saturday, Barry was expected to be given a tough test in a midfield holding position that he had never played before the weekend.

But the intelligence of Barry's game was at the heart of an England performance that essentially secured the win before half-time.

As expected, Russia were a slick and dangerous proposition when they had the ball in the right areas but Barry's anticipation and timing were faultless at times as he provided an effective shield in front of the England back four.

In just the third minute, Barry appeared on the edge of his own six-yard box to intercept a cross from Andrey Arshavin after the Russian No 10 had glided past Rio Ferdinand down the right-hand side.

And he was in the right place again 13 minutes later as he backtracked diligently to cut out another dangerous pull-back inside his own penalty area, once more from the dangerous Arshavin.

In between, of course, Barry's undoubted ability to create chances with his left foot saw him provide Michael Owen with the opening goal via an accurate cross from the right.

There was the odd moment when his inexperience caused him to err and he was fortunate that his failure to stop the breaking Konstantin Zyrianov did not prove costly midway through the first half.

But if this game was indeed an audition, Barry passed it with honours.