Peter Crouch was covered in the hugs and kisses of his team-mates and he treated the Wembley crowd to the little rope-pulling dance he had promised in that Comic Relief sketch.

The 6ft 7in striker may not be Fabio Capello's preferred choice as England's target-man striker and he may have been booed on to the field at times in the early throes of his England career.

Yet they loved him at Wembley as he scored his 15th goal in 33 internationals as England beat Ukraine 2-1 in Group 6 of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Make no mistake, the Italian will use that goal to validate his decision to utilise a target man at all costs.

There is no doubt Capello has brought discipline and confidence to England in his 13 internationals in charge but his most precious gift has been the notion the team comes before all else. In part, that explains his stubborn refusal to entertain Michael Owen, even though the Newcastle striker has scored 40 goals for England. Owen simply does not fit into the preferred way the manager wants his team to perform.

Capello sees England's midfield of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, with pace provided by such as Aaron Lennon and guile by Wayne Rooney as its greatest strength. To that end, he requires a big target man. Normally Emile Heskey, but against Ukraine and because of numerous injuries, Crouch.

You have to give Capello credit. It works. It was not England's most fluent performance. Too many passes went astray, too much possession was squandered.

The second-half performance was positively insipid and it took a late goal from John Terry to secure the points after Andriy Shevchenko, the man who had such a torrid time at Chelsea, scored for Ukraine.

But that will not deflect Capello from his master plan. Especially as the measure of his organisation and the worth of a target man was evident as early as the 13th minute. Crouch, with back to goal, tapped the Three Lions on his white jersey, imploring Gareth Barry to hit it with a 40-yard pass. The Aston Villa midfielder saw the gesture and clipped the ball forward where it was deflected deftly by the Portsmouth striker into the path of Rooney, who was upended on the edge of the penalty box. Gerrard fired the free-kick narrowly wide but that little cameo summed up much of Capello's thinking.

The lone striker system gives Rooney and Gerrard a freedom to roam which is at the heart of England's new-found potency.

And, while Capello might regard Crouch as the best of the rest, he is no bad player.

Not that this fifth successive win was a thing of beauty. It wasn't. It was a staccato affair. Little vignettes of promise followed by longer periods when the action was as flat as stale beer.

If Ukraine's lone danger in the first hour came from a long-range shot from their captain, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, which David James saved bizarrely with the point of his shoulder, then there was a disturbing edginess to England's play in that twitchy second half.

Yet it is no fluke England have won their first five qualifying matches. Under Capello they are maturing as a team, one which invariably finds a way to win. One which looks bound for the World Cup in South Africa.

The force, you might say, is with Capello.