Rashford relies on his basic instincts

MARCUS RASHFORD admits he went “back to basics” to help England all-but book their place at next summer’s World Cup with a 2-1 win over Slovakia.

The Three Lions had to come from behind at Wembley after Rashford’s error early on allowed Stanislav Lobotka to open the scoring.

The Manchester United forward recovered to set up Eric Dier to equalise and then scored the winner in the second half himself to complete the turnaround.

Gareth Southgate’s side now sit five points clear at the top of Group F with two qualifying matches remaining and Rashford hailed a vital three points.

He said: “It was an important goal, we started a bit slow as a team but we got back into the game together and got the win in the end.

“You have to get back to basics; just do what you’ve been taught and what you’ve been working on as a team and in the end that’s what got us back into the game.

“In these games it’s important to start fast because of the quality which is on the pitch and if you don’t you pay for it.”

England conceded after just three minutes when an error from Rashford was capitalised on by Lobotka.

The 19-year-old made amends, though, when his corner was swept home at the near post by Dier after 36 minutes.

Rashford went one better after the break, lashing home a right-footed effort from just outside the box to hand England a vital victory.

Talking about Rashford’s performance, Dier jokingly said: “It wasn’t so good to begin with but it got better!”

The Tottenham midfielder added: “He did really well, it was a fantastic show of character to make a mistake and to come back and score the winner himself which gets us closer to the World Cup, which hopefully he’ll shine at as well, so credit to him.

“It was really important. We needed a win to get us closer to the World Cup, that’s the objective.”

Northern Ireland secured second place in Group C and took a huge step towards a World Cup play-off place by beating the Czech Republic 2-0 at Windsor Park.